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September 2013
i
APPROVAL FROM THE PhD COMMITTEE
Approved by:
----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
Name and Surname, Position, Institution Date
----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
Name and Surname, Position, Institution Date
----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
Name and Surname, Position, Institution Date
----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
Name and Surname, Position, Institution Date
----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
Name and Surname, Position, Institution Date
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DISSERTATION DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this thesis is my own unaided work except where due
recognition has been given. It is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at
the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in South Africa. It has not been
submitted before for any other degree at any other university.
……………………………….
iii
Abstract
In recent years, emerging markets have become the main “engine of global
(economic) growth” (Spence, 2011, p. 8) . Whilst the rapid diffusion of its banking
and mobile telephony industries has been unprecedented and well documented in
the literature (Bankole, Bankole, & Brown, 2011; Bick, Brown, & Abratt, 2004;
Brahima, 2012; Kalba, 2008), the dearth of empirically based evidence on CRM
implementation in emerging markets in general, and Nigeria and South Africa (SA)
in particular, remains undisputed (Kumar, Sunder, & Ramaseshan, 2011; Sheth,
2011).
The research findings illustrate that whilst some of the factors for CRM
effectiveness in Nigeria and South Africa may be consistent with those in high
income, industrialized markets, the peculiarities of Nigeria and South Africa require
that companies adapt their CRM strategies to the local context. The contingency
factors that can either impede on or enhance effective CRM implementation in
these countries include (a) multichannel integration (particularly informal channel
and social media), (b) operating structure, (c) training and staff recruitment
iv
practices, (d) customer data storage and mining capabilities as well as (e)
normative motives linked with the socio-cultural context of the country.
The similarities and differences between Nigeria and South Africa are also
highlighted in this study.
The originality of this study lies in it clearly defining the peculiarities of CRM in
emerging markets, thereby establishing that these markets are different from high
income, industrialized markets.
In addition, this study identifies the contingency factors that can enhance or impede
on CRM success in these markets and puts forward a set of research propositions
as well as a conceptual model for CRM implementation in emerging markets as a
contribution to the body of knowledge. This CRM conceptual model can be tested
in future research.
Building on these findings, the study makes suggestions on how the strategy of
CRM can be adapted to the emerging market context. It proposes that companies
assess their CRM readiness through the application of a newly developed heat
map that takes into consideration the company lifestage and its industry saturation
level. This heat map is a useful tool for organisations to ascertain whether or not
they are ready to embark upon the CRM programme, to better understand the
required efforts needed to deliver on a successful CRM programme as well as the
expected timelines for true benefits realisation. Moreover, another contribution of
this research is the development of a CRM index, a composite index of 16
indicators that measures CRM success across three dimensions; namely
organisational, institutional and customer data.
Furthermore, the novelty of this research can also be found in the triangulation of
theories such as the contingency, institutional, and Hofstede’s fifth national value
dimensions of culture that focuses on a short vs. long-term orientation of cultures
and companies, are integrated into a single study.
v
This study has theoretical, managerial, conceptual, methodological and societal
implications. Future research could include other geographies, industries, a
longitudinal study and quantitative studies based on the testing of the proposed
CRM conceptual model and index.
vi
Dedications
This PhD report is all about Africa, this new investment frontier and the main
destination for companies that are keen on achieving sustained returns in what was
once known as the gloom and dark Continent. It is also a culmination of what I have
learnt as an entrepreneur, consultant, corporate employee and academic over the
past 14 years, about customers, relationship building, services marketing,
institutions and businesses in Africa. Throughout those years, my learning
experience was heightened by the many engagements I had with various people
and organizations across the world—either face to face or virtual. Although I cannot
thank them all in this report, I find it necessary to acknowledge a select few
numbers of those individuals and organizations that have supported me throughout
my PhD journey which now spans four years.
First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the organizations that willingly
accepted to be the unit of analysis in this research. Specifically, I refer to the
banking and mobile companies of South Africa and Nigeria. Your employees were
open and freely engaged with me during the one-on-one meetings and thereafter,
they were available to provide further clarity on the topics that were discussed.
At Stern School of Business, I thank Prof Vishal Singh for affording me the
opportunity to hone my analytical skills and to establish networks within the New
York University academic and practitioner communities. These have proved to be
invaluable to me.
vii
Third, I would like to recognize my marketing colleagues at the Marketing
Association of South Africa (and specially John Svenoaks) for their unconditional
support.
Fourth, to my family- specially my children, Kezie (17) and Jemmie (11), and my
husband, Inno, you have always been my bedrock. I am grateful for your continued
support. To my sister, Carine Flore Sanama, for her unconditional love and support
throughout these years, a Big THANK YOU.
Fifth, to my sponsors, Tata Africa, Wits University, New York University, Academy
of Marketing Sciences (USA), and Upbeat marketing (South Africa), you played an
important role in helping me fulfill my PhD journey.
Last but not least, to my study Leader and Mentor, Prof Geoff Bick, who has guided
me throughout these past years, your patience and extreme support have helped
me to be resilient and to look continuously for ways to enhance my research report.
I believe that this report will be a catalyst in companies for rethinking their customer
strategies. In addition to this, I sincerely hope that it can enable them to find
innovative ways to develop and implement CRM programmes that will not just
generate sustained profits for these companies; but also delight their customers, all
the time.
viii
Table of Contents
Page
ix
CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ......................................................... 17
x
3.2.2 The emerging markets perspective ........................................................ 53
3.3.1 Introduction............................................................................................. 60
4.2.1 Research design and motivation for the selected research method ....... 81
4.5 Criteria for High Quality Research Design and Analysis ............................. 100
xi
CHAPTER 5: CASE STUDY RESULTS – Focus on a bank (SABA) and a
mobile telephony (SATEL) company in South Africa......................................... 110
5.2.1 Overview of the “As is” CRM implementation at SATEL ....................... 110
5.3.1 Overview of the “As is” CRM implementation at SABA ........................ 121
6.2.1 Overview of the “As is” CRM implementation at NITEL ........................ 133
6.3.1 Overview of the “As is” CRM implementation at NIBA .......................... 146
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CHAPTER 7: CROSS-CASE STUDY RESULTS – Focus on a bank (NIBA) and
a mobile telephony (NITEL) company in Nigeria ................................................ 156
7.2 What Are the Contingency Factors That Could Contribute Towards CRM
Success or Failure in Emerging Markets?.................................................... 186
7.3 How Can the CRM Strategy Be Adapted to the Emerging Market
Context? .......................................................................................................... 187
8.2.2 Designing and implementing a CRM index for Emerging Markets ....... 199
Figure 3-2: Feedback loop between operational and analytical CRM ....................... 45
Figure 3-5: South Africa, low user basket in Rand (ZAR) .......................................... 78
Figure 3-6: Market share of mobile operators in Nigeria (December 2011) .............. 79
Figure 7-1: CRM implementation conceptual model for emerging markets ............ 159
xiv
List of Tables
Table 1-1: Projected real growth rates of 21 emerging market economies for the
period 2007-50 (% per annum) ............................................................................... 3
Table 2-1: Long-term orientation index and factor scores of 23 countries and
regions ........................................................................................................................ 36
Table 3-2: Review of critical CRM success factors in industrialised markets ............ 53
Table 3-3: Contrasting emerging and developed market views on CRM success
factors ......................................................................................................................... 58
Table 4-2: Four categories of scientific paradigm and their elements ....................... 89
Table 4-5: Data sources and application to the study .............................................. 100
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Table 4-6: CRM construct measurement properties ................................................ 103
Table 4-7: Criteria for judging quality in case study research .................................. 105
Table 5-1: Organisational factors with impact on SATEL CRM programme ........ 115
Table 5-2: Institutional factors with impact on SATEL CRM programme ............. 118
Table 5-3: Customer data factors with impact on SATEL CRM programme ........ 120
Table 5-4: Organisational factors with impact on SABA CRM programme .......... 126
Table 5-5: Institutional factors with impact on SABA CRM programme ............... 129
Table 5-6: Customer data factors with impact on SABA CRM programme .......... 130
Table 6-1: Organisational factors with impact on NITEL CRM programme .......... 140
Table 6-2: Institutional factors with impact on NITEL CRM programme ............... 143
Table 6-3: Customer data factors with impact on NITEL CRM programme ......... 145
Table 6-4: Organisational factors with impact on NIBA CRM programme ........... 151
Table 6-5: Institutional factors with impact on NIBA CRM programme ................ 153
Table 6-6 Customer data factors with impact on NIBA CRM programme ............ 154
Table 7-3: Contrasting Ems findings against CRM literature in HICs ................... 180
Table 8-1: Consistency matrix linking research questions, findings and suggested
propositions.......................................................................................................... 189
Table 8-3: Legend on CRM predicted success/failure rate and key strategic actions
............................................................................................................................. 198
xvi
List of Appendices
xvii
Abbreviations and Acronyms
FO Future Orientation
IT Information Technology
JIT Just-in-Time
LTO Long-term Orientation
xix
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter introduces the research topic by focusing on: (1) the context of the
study, (2) the problem statement, (3) the purpose statement and key research
questions, (4) the knowledge gap and (5) a brief research methodology. It
culminates with (6) the thesis structure.
In recent years, emerging markets have become the main “engine of global
(economic) growth” (Spence, 2011, p. 8). This is evidenced by D. Wilson and
Purushothaman (2006) strikingly optimistic projections about the future economic
outlook of emerging markets. They forecast that the BRICs countries which, in
2003 represented 15% of the G6 could account for more than half its size by
2025, with only the United States of America (USA) and Japan remaining
amongst the 6th largest economies in the world.
In support of this meteoric rise of emerging markets, Sheth (2008) explicates the
profound impact that China and India are already having on the global economy.
He notes that the debate is no longer about “whether the Chindia tide is rising,
rather what impact its waves will have along the shorelines of the world
economy” (Sheth, 2008, p. 4). Hitt, Haiyang, and Worthington (2005) further
supports the idea that emerging markets have become attractive to foreign
entrants and also that these markets are increasingly contributing to the world’s
economic development.
Africa has not been left out as part of this important debate of emerging markets’
impact on the world economy. Accordingly, Ghose (2012) comments that, at the
last World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos in January 2012, whilst
uncertainties prevailed amongst observers on the USA, European and even
some emerging market economic prospects, “the only beacon of hope was
Africa”. Moreover, in the recently published 2011 World Economic Outlook
report, it is projected that sub-Saharan African economic activities are to remain
relatively strong throughout this year (Blanke et al., 2011). Furthermore, the
inclusion of South Africa in the BRICS fold also heightens the crucial role Africa is
playing on the world economic growth. To amplify the debate on emerging
markets, Hawksworth and Cookson (2008) have suggested a broader view of
emerging market prospects, one that goes beyond the BRICs countries. They
have projected that by 2050, Nigeria will become one of the top emerging market
economies, even surpassing South Africa and Egypt in Africa; and other
countries such as Russia, Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil.
They have demonstrated that, although Nigeria now appears to be a high risk
proposition, its position can be turned around, specially if the country can
“achieve and sustain a greater degree of political stability and economic
openness in the long term”(Hawksworth & Cookson, 2008, p. 4). In table 1-1,
they provide an illustration of the projected growth rates of the top 21 emerging
market economies for 2007-2050. South Africa and Nigeria are both included in
this analysis.
In a nutshell, this table shows that the GDP per capita at purchasing parity power
growth rate of Nigeria will be 4.4% whilst only 3.3% for South Africa. Likewise,
the Nigerian population will grow much faster at 1.6% whereas the South African
population will only grow at 0.3%. As the Nigerian population currently stands at
over 160 million inhabitants, which represents three times the size of South
Africa, the additional growth of 1.6% will make it a serious player in emerging
economies.
2
Table 1-1: Projected real growth rates of 21 emerging market economies for
the period 2007-50 (% per annum)
Source: (Hawksworth & Cookson, 2008), adapted from PricewaterhouseCoopers GDP growth
estimates (rounded to nearest 0.1%), population growth projections from the UN. E7* and G7**
averages shown in bold only.
Likewise, practitioners and other academic scholars have noted and even
documented Africa’s current and prospective growth. They are confident that its
current growth momentum will continue and as a result, they have encouraged
businesses to include Africa in their internationalization plans (Leke, Lund,
Roxburg, & Wamelen, 2010; Mahajan, 2009; Nwankwo, 2011).
3
Mahajan (2009, p. xi) best summarizes Africa’s economic development in these
terms:
“This new era is rooted in a powerful truth: (...) the true wealth of Africa is
rooted in more than its 900 million consumers. This is one of the fastest
growing markets in the world”.
In light of the above, it cannot be argued that as “the last century was about
marketing in the advanced economies; this century is likely to be about marketing
in the emerging markets” (Sheth, 2011, p. 166). Sheth (2011) warns though that
marketing fundaments of customer segmentation or even market orientation are
at odds with the realities of emerging markets. For that reason, he calls for a
paradigm shift in the way products are developed or marketed in emerging
markets. Burgess and Steenkamp (2006) concur. Similarly, they are vocal about
the dearth of marketing research on emerging markets:
The in-depth literature review on CRM shows that although it has been widely
implemented in industrialized markets (Chen & Popovich, 2003; Hsin Hsin, 2007;
4
Mendoza, Marius, Pérez, & Grimán, 2007; H. Wilson, Daniel, & McDonald, 2002),
the preponderance of customer centricity in organizations has only gained
momentum recently in emerging markets. Emerging markets that have
spearheaded the adoption of CRM include Asia, Scandinavia and a select
number of countries in South America. Within the broad African context, empirical
research has been conducted on CRM in North Africa, and Egypt in particular (Ali
& Brooks, 2009). Sub-Saharan Africa is still lagging behind regarding the number
and the scale of CRM initiatives that are being implemented and published in the
academic literature.
Because this study focuses on CRM in emerging markets, it was found propitious
to define these two important concepts of “CRM” and “Emerging markets”.
The available literature on CRM presents numerous definitions of what CRM is,
thereby prompting this view that “CRM means different things to different people”
(Winer, 2001, p. 91). This plethora of definitions has created some confusion on
its true meaning (Iriana & Buttle, 2007; Jayachandran, Sharma, Kaufman, &
Raman, 2005; M. Meyer & Kolbe, 2005; Pedron & Saccol, 2009; Troy, 2008). For
example, CRM has been referred to as technology (Christopher, 2003; Hart,
2006; Nguyen, 2011), a business strategy (Buttle, 2009; Payne & Frow, 2006;
Reinartz, Krafft, & Hoyer, 2004) and sales (Ahearne, Rapp, Mariadoss, &
Ganesan, 2012). Similarly, Keramati, Mehrabi, and Mojir (2010) and Srivastava,
Shervani, and Fahey (1999) define CRM as a set of processes for managing
relationships with customers and suppliers across marketing, sales and services.
Greenberg (2001) asserts that CRM is linked with company philosophy. For the
purposes of this study, CRM is defined as being:
5
Similar to the concept of CRM, there are various definitions of emerging markets.
The World Bank (2007) defines emerging markets as those economies with a
GNI of US$ 11 456 or less per capita ("Emerging Markets Definition and World
Market Segments," 2009). Spence (2011) notes that according to the World
Bank, an emerging market is one with a GDP per capita that exceeds US$
10 000. In a recent study on emerging markets, Sheth (2011) identifies five
characteristics of emerging markets consisting of (a) market heterogeneity:
Emerging markets are fragmented markets with a significant portion being at the
bottom of the pyramid and having difficulties in accessing clean water or
electricity; (b) socio-political governance: The governance of the market is done
by business groups, religions rather than competition; (c) Unbranded competition:
There is a wide proliferation of unbranded products. The barter exchange
offerings are widely adopted; (d) chronic shortage of resources: This is evidenced
with power outages and limited skills available in the market; and (e) inadequate
infrastructure such as poor roads, technology infrastructure or limited market
transaction enablers such as credit card facilities.
In the context of this study, the term emerging markets refers to the two sub-
saharan countries that are listed in the 2008 Pricewaterhouse Coopers report
which includes Nigeria and South Africa (Hawksworth & Cookson, 2008). These
two countries have the largest total GDP size in sub-saharan Africa.
6
1.2 Problem Statement
The problem this research addresses is the lack of adaptation of CRM strategies
to the emerging market context and the lack of understanding of contingency
factors that may inhibit or enable the effectiveness of CRM implementation in
organisations.
Whilst the extant CRM literature provides empirical evidence on key CRM
success factors which have mainly derived from studies conducted in high
income, industrialized markets (K. Chan, 2008; Chen & Popovich, 2003;
Mendoza et al., 2007; H. Wilson et al., 2002), companies that operate in
emerging markets should be cognizant of the contingency factors that can
strengthen or impede on their local CRM efforts.
Within the context of Africa, global companies are taking note of the positive
socio- economic developments that are occurring in this market. These include:
Enhanced democracy; political and macro-economic stability; improved legal
structures; faster population growth than in matured markets; expected high
investment returns; economic openness, specially with regard to international
trade (Kasekende, Oshikoya, Ondiege, & Dasah, 2008; Leke et al., 2010). These
global companies are now setting up operations in Africa with the view to attract
and retain local customers (Mahajan, 2009). However, these companies
(together with domestic-owned companies) have been shown to adopt CRM
models that were developed elsewhere without adapting these models to the
unique CRM landscape of emerging markets. Consequently, these CRM models
have not been successful (Almotairi, 2010). In a study that focuses on strategies
that fit emerging markets, Khanna, Palepu, and Sinha (2005, p. 64) assert that
CEOs in developed, industrialized markets cannot assume that they can do
business the same way in emerging markets “because the quality of the market
infrastructure varies from country to country”. Hence, adaptation to the emerging
market context is required.
7
Consequently, without a clear understanding of the local market environment,
sound business processes and a well-defined strategy, it will inevitably be difficult
for companies to achieve a high success rate in their CRM initiatives (Berndt,
Herbst, & Roux, 2005; Brunjes & Roderick, 2002). Managing and building
customer value is no longer a hype but rather “a fruitful avenue for business
competition” (Rogers, 2005, p. 262).
As company executives are accountable for business targets which may include
amongst others high profit margin, an acceptable return on assets, and improved
customer satisfaction, performance measurement has become an integral part of
their business activities (J. Kim, Choi, Qualls, & Park, 2004; Uzelac & Sudarević,
2006). By incorporating metrics in their CRM strategy, companies can measure,
at a specific point in time, the level of CRM success and failure achieved in
individual national African markets; and accordingly, take swift corrective actions
where and when necessary.
The absence of a concerted effort to identify and understand the unique socio-
cultural, economic and political landscape of Africa’s national markets poses a
major challenge to successful CRM implementation in these African markets.
The main benefits for companies that understand these dynamics of the Africa’s
national markets go beyond adaptation of appropriate strategies to the local
context but also include the mitigation of the potential high failure rate of their
CRM programmes and improved sales and profit.
8
accordingly, they should develop and execute relevant strategies that can
enhance the effectiveness of their CRM programmes whilst reducing their failure
rates. In addition to this, the contingency factors for CRM effectiveness in Africa
are identified in this study and a framework for successful CRM implementation
in an African context is proposed. In order to achieve this purpose, the following
research questions are proposed:
RQ2: What are the contingency factors that could contribute towards
CRM success or failure in emerging markets?
RQ3: How can the CRM strategy be adapted to the emerging market
context?
The gap in the body of knowledge that this study intended to fill could be
categorized into five areas: (1) CRM conceptual, (2) theoretical; (3)
methodological; (4) managerial and (5) societal gaps. Each of the identified gap
areas is further explicated below:
9
contingency factors that can enhance or impede on CRM success in these
emerging markets.
The CRM literature pays particular attention to the organizational factors linked
with CRM success and recognizes that these organizational factors are drivers of
CRM practices (Foss, Stone, & Ekinci, 2008; S. King & T. Burgess, 2008;
Mendoza et al., 2007). Moreover, a compilation of studies on CRM (Chakravorti,
2009; Coltman, Devinney, & Midgley, 2009; Gouthier & Schmid, 2003; Keramati
et al., 2010; Wang & Feng, 2012), marketing (Boulding & Christen, 2008; Golder
& Tellis, 1993; Ortega & García-Villaverde, 2011) and management (Fatima,
Rehman, & Ali, 2011; Holtbrügge, Friedmann, & Puck, 2010; Jiang & Zhao, 2012;
Kunc & Morecroft, 2010) as a whole has been developed from the resource-
based view (RBV) approach .
Despite the general tendency to have RBV as the main theoretical lens for CRM
studies as shown above, recently published research conducted by Kirca,
Bearden, and Roth (2011) demonstrates that the institutional theory is gaining
support from the broader marketing community, particularly with regard to
justifying how foreign firms behave in host countries. Hillebrand, Nijholt, and
Nijssen (2011) point to a similar conclusion when they suggest that institutional
processes can be important in explaining the adoption of CRM practices. This
theory focuses on how social pressures from outside organisations influence the
structures and practices of such organisations.
To answer the research questions, the researcher drew on the institutional theory
as well as Hofstede’s fifth national value dimension of culture of short-term vs.
long-term orientation. Furthermore, she applied the contingency theory as the
overarching theory since it indicates that many theories can be used to explain
phenomenon that are evolutionary.
10
1.4.3 Methodological gap
Moreover, inferences from this study were not just drawn from four within case
analyses; but also from cross-case analyses. The rich data that were generated
helped in addressing the question of analytical generalisability often identified as
a weakness of qualitative studies.
This study is intended to cast new light on the need for adapting CRM strategies
to the emerging market context. Specifically, it is anticipated to be useful to
practitioners that seek to enhance their CRM programme success rates. It is
hoped this study would shed lights on what CRM is in an emerging market
context by bringing to the fore the peculiarities of each market and contrasting
them against high income countries.
11
1.5 Brief Research Methodology
Throughout this research, three principles for data collection were considered: (a)
the use of multiple sources of evidence which allowed for triangulation and
strengthened the reliability and validity of the research results; (b) the creation of
a case study database which had to do more with the organizing and
documenting of the data collected (namely transcripts, recorded interviews, email
correspondences, reports, field notes, press releases) for each case study. As
part of this database, folders containing materials related to the research, as
mentioned earlier, were created and given a date. Also, the timelines included in
the research protocol helped the researcher in monitoring the progress made
with regard to the research milestones which included amongst other timing for
data collection and analysis, scheduling of the trip to Nigeria and meeting with
research respondents, the process of setting up interviews, doing follow up and
more. Moreover, an excel spreadsheet including the coded name of the research
participants, time, location and duration of the interview was also created for
each case study; (c) the maintenance of a chain of evidence that can allow a
12
third party to trace the steps involved in the research process and also to improve
the reliability of the study (Yin, 2009). Thus, all relevant evident were kept and
used during the data analysis. This helped in enhancing the overall quality of the
study.
The data were collected from multiple sources, including both primary and
secondary, and then analysed with no a priori propositions or hypotheses. In
particular, data generated from semi-structured interviews were digitally
recorded, transcribed, and then content analysed using a contact summary form
and a qualitative software analysis package called MAXQDA analysis.
As part of this analysis, recurring words and thoughts were grouped into themes.
These themes emerged from the data analysis were considered against those
found in the literature review and subsequently given one of the following
naming: “consistent with the literature-no adaptation is required”; “Consistent with
the literature- adaption is required”, “Inconsistent” or “New”. This approach was
first applied to each of the cases individually; and then, a cross-case analysis
was performed.
Then, Healy and Perry (2000) and Yin (2009) quality criteria are combined with
Riege and Nair (1997) techniques for evaluating validity and reliability along the
following six dimensions of ontological appropriateness, epistemology, construct
validity, internal validity, external validity (credibility) and reliability.
Lastly, the research results are presented as well as research propositions and a
conceptual framework for successful CRM implementation in emerging markets
developed for potential further testing in future research.
13
1.6 Thesis Structure and Map
As depicted in figure 1-1 below, this study is organized in eight chapters. The
symbiotic interplay of the content of these chapters helps support the study
purpose and also to address the research questions.
Chapter 1 introduces the research topic by focusing on 1.1) the context of the
study, 1.2) the problem statement, 1.3) the purpose statement and key research
questions, 1.4) the knowledge gap and 1.5) a brief research methodology. It
culminates with 1.6) the thesis structure.
Chapter 2 examines the theoretical lenses through which this research has been
approached. It incorporates a critical assessment of three theories; namely 2.1)
the contingency theory, 2.2) the institutional theory, and 2.3) the culture theory
which focuses on Hofstede’s fifth value dimensions of national culture. The
underlying principle of each theory is discussed and the linkage with CRM is
considered. The last section of this chapter, 2.4) synthesises these three
theoretical lenses, contrasts them with one another and highlights some key
insights. Throughout this chapter, these theories are deeply evaluated to
ascertain the importance of their contribution in relation to the topic being
researched.
14
Chapter 4 covers six sections, including: 4.1) an introduction, 4.2) the research
design and paradigm, 4.3) the population and sample, 4.4) the data collection
method, 4.5) the methods of data analysis and interpretation and 4.6) the criteria
for rigorous qualitative data analysis.
In chapter 5 and 6, the within case analyses are performed and results from
these analyses are presented. These results are supported by verbatim quotes
from research participants.
As the last chapter of this research report, Chapter 8 outlines the research
implications, limitations and areas for future research. Prior to doing this, it
presents some concluding remarks on the study that has been undertaken.
Furthermore, recommendations are made on the contingency factors that can
impede on or enhance CRM implementation success. Based on these inductive
analyses, a theoretical framework and a model for successful CRM
implementation in emerging markets are proposed.
15
Figure 1-1: Thesis structure and map
In conclusion, this research identified a void in the CRM literature which relates to
the contingency factors for CRM implementation in emerging markets and also
the lack of adaptation of CRM strategies to these markets. It proposed three
theoretical lenses through which the study would be approached; namely the
contingency, institutional and Hofstede’s fifth dimension of national culture (short-
term vs. long term orientation) theories. Understanding these various theories
and how they can be applied to this study forms the basis of Chapter 2.
16
CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter examines the theoretical lenses through which this research has
been approached. It incorporates a critical assessment of three theories; namely
(1) the contingency theory, (2) the institutional theory, and (3) Hofstede’s fifth
national dimensions. The underlying principle of each theory is discussed and the
linkage with CRM is considered. In addition to this, throughout this chapter, the
above-mentioned theories are deeply analysed to ascertain the importance of
their contribution in relation to the topic being researched.
17
2.1 Contingency Theory
These contingency theorists recognize that due to the nature of the environment
in which organizations operate, there can not be one way of organizing and
managing businesses (Tosi & Slocum, 1984). They assert that contingency
factors embedded in the external environment impact on the structure and
management of the company and as a result, they provide organizations with
multiple avenues to develop and implement appropriate strategies that respond
to these environmental challenges. Smith and Lewis (2011, p. 381) concur when
they posit that the contingency theory offers “a response to tensions” faced by
organizations. They suggest that this theory allows for a choice amongst
competing demands and they also note that the alignment between internal
factors and the external environments increases the organization effectiveness.
In support of this theory, Galbraith (1973) commented that marketing
organizations cannot be organized in a single way. According to him, each way of
organizing a marketing organization is not equally effective. These thoughts were
echoed and extended by Scott (2005, p. 89) who found that contingency theory is
“guided by the general orienting hypothesis that organizations whose internal
features best match the demands of their environments will achieve the best
adaptation…the best way to organize depends on the nature of the environment
to which the organization relates”. Similarly, Donaldson (2001, p. 2) notes that
18
“contingency theory incorporates the concept of fits that affect performance which
in turn impels adaptive organizational change”. He further explicates that the
contingency approach posits that the effect of one variable on another depends
on a third variable. Thus, there is a trivariate relationship between structure,
contingency and performance; and as a result of this, where the structural
variable is at the level that fits the level of the contingency, a superior
performance outcome can be achieved and conversely.
All of the above contingency theories are based on the premise that there needs
to be a fit between organisational factors and the environment in which the
organization operate to allow for effective strategy implementation that leads to
high company performance.
Although the extant contingency theoretical views on the need for a fit between
internal and the external environmental factors are widely accepted, critical
issues still remain. For example, the classical theorists tend to differ with this
contingency view as they contend with a single way of running organizations
which is more often described as a “one size fits all” approach (Shenhar, 2001, p.
395). The next section of this chapter expands on the limitations of the
contingency theory.
Over the years, the contingency theory has been a source of many debates and
discussions in the academic literature. Although the main vantage points of this
theory have been recognized (Tosi & Slocum, 1984), there are criticisms that
have weakened the potential impact this theory could make in a specific field of
research.
The main problems associated with this theory were articulated by Schoonhoven
(1981),Tosi and Slocum (1984), and Boyd et al. (2012).
20
forms of interaction: theoretical statements do not clearly define the types of
interactions intended; (d) the analytical model: relationships studied within the
contingency model are considered to be linear; (e) assumptions about
contingency relationships: this theory arguments that lower values of a dimension
of structure when coupled with lower values of technological (or environmental)
uncertainty, should produce effective organizations. An implication of this
argument is that effectiveness can be impaired because there is no congruence
between technology and structure.
Other scholars such as Tosi and Slocum (1984) have summarized the criticisms
of contingency theory into two salient points: lack of clarity of concepts and the
inadequately specification of the relationships between the concepts.
In addition to this, more recent studies bring to the fore the limitations of the
contingency theory. For example, Boyd et al. (2012, p. 280) assert that
“contingency as a theory came under criticism in the 1980s for a variety of
methodological and theoretical issues”. In their studies, they note the uncertainty
that is linked to contingency hypotheses and as a result of this they raise the
concern about the complexity of contingency hypotheses and how the lack of
precision could inhibit the development of new knowledge within the field of
management research.
From the preceding discussion, it may appear as though that the many difficulties
associated with the contingency theory may reduce its application to
management research. In an attempt to counteract this view, the relevance of the
contingency theory to this study is provided in the next section.
21
institutional theory, and Hofstede’s five national dimensions of culture as well as
the Globe theory in a single research across four multiple case studies.
By applying the contingency theory in this study, issues associated with the use
of a single theory to a study is avoided. Instead, as different theoretical
perspectives are integrated into a single study, the research findings are enriched
and strengthened.
Moreover, one of the main focal point of this study is the identification of
contingency factors that can impede on or enhance CRM implementation in an
emerging market context. The South African and Nigerian markets in particular
provide the required context for testing the contingency theory. Also, by
contrasting CRM practices in high income, industrialized countries against
emerging markets, these practices may be found to vary in different settings,
which is the fundamental premise of the contingency theory.
Given the relative strength of some organizations, Jangwoo and Miller (1996)
posit that these organizations are able to thrive without effecting the fit between
performance and strategy. This approach supports the institutional view of
organizations whilst acknowledging the peculiarities of cultures. These two
conceptual lenses are further examined in the subsequent sections.
22
practices influenced by institutional pressures forms the basis of the institutional
theory.
Institutional theory can be defined as a theoretical lens that is used to study the
adoption and diffusion of organizational forms and practices. It is based on the
principle that organizations are under social influence and pressure to adopt
practices which are viewed as being appropriate for the situation (Björkman, Fey,
& Hyeon Jeong, 2007). According to Lincoln (1995, p. 114), the institutional
theory can be viewed as “the tendency for social structures and processes to
acquire meaning and stability in their own right rather than as instrumental tools
for the achievement of specialized ends.”
Institutional theorists such as DiMaggio and Powell (1983) posit that coercive,
normative and mimetic isomorphic motives are underlying reasons for a
company’s adoption of a business practice. They define coercive isomorphic
motives as those motives that are based on market legitimacy. Typically in this
situation, companies that want to reach legitimacy will tend to behave like their
counterparts without even ascertaining if the behavior displayed is congruent with
their vision or culture. Mimetic isomorphism tends to take place when there are
market changes. This ambiguity in the market forces companies to mimic the
behavior of other industry players being viewed by them as successful.
Normative isomorphic motives relate to the diffusion of norms that are deemed
appropriate amongst members of a society.
23
“Institutionalisation as a process of instilling value. This concept was
spearheaded by Prof Philip Selznick. He views organizations as an adaptive
vehicle shaped in reactions to the characteristics and commitments of
participants as well as to influences and constraints from the external
environment.
Later on, Scott (2008) pointed out that institutions comprise many elements
operating at various levels and as such institutional scholars need to establish
what elements matter in each context and also how each element relate to one
another. In the same paper, he provides a summary of the trends he has
observed in the institutional analysis of organisations before reaching the
conclusion that perhaps the institutional theory has “reached the stage of young
adulthood” (Scott, 2008, p. 439).
Mahalingam and Levit (2007) believe that institutional theory is a useful concept
that provides clarity on how to address cross-national issues resulting from
cultural differences between nations.
24
2.2.2 Application of the institutional theory to the broad management
context
Over the past three decades, the growing literature on the importance of
institutional forces and how they shape up organisations have re-affirmed the
position of the institutional theory as a robust and solid theoretical lens (Dacin,
1997; Scott, 2008). This is partly supported by the wide application of the
institutional theory across various disciplines (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006).
The institutional theory has also been applied to other fields such as corporate
governance (Chizema & Buck, 2006; Yang, Su, & Fam, 2012), institutional
economics (Boettke & Fink, 2011; Chang, 2011) and the casino and gambling
industry (Humphreys, 2010).
25
Despite the progress of the institutional theory, several gaps still remain. These
gaps will be discussed in the next section and they should be viewed as avenues
for future research.
In addition to the above, the criticisms directed at the institutional theory have
rather focused on the need for expansion on key concepts such as power,
legitimacy or ideational elements of organisations (Suddaby, 2010).
26
2.2.4 Relevance of the institutional theory to this study
In light of these comments, it was natural for this research to consider the
institutional theory as one of the theoretical lens through which the investigation
on CRM in Africa could be undertaken. As mentioned below, there are also two
other important factors that have led to the choice of the institutional theory.
27
B. The increased interest in CRM research with an institutional
perspective
Despite the general tendency to have Resource-Based View (RBV) as the main
theoretical lens for CRM studies (Dong & Zhu, 2008; Gouthier & Schmid, 2003),
recently published research conducted by (Kirca et al., 2011) demonstrates that
the institutional theory is gaining support from the broader marketing community,
particularly with regard to justifying how foreign firms behave in host countries.
Moreover, similar empirical studies conducted by other marketing scholars have
identified institutional pressures as drivers of marketing practices adopted by
companies (Connelly, Ketchen, & Slater, 2011; Grewal, Comer, & Mehta, 2001;
Grewal & Dharwadkar, 2002). These studies suggest that companies operate in
a social context which exerts an influence on their behavior. Hillebrand et al.
(2011) point to a similar conclusion when they suggest that institutional
processes can be important in explaining the adoption of CRM practices.
Specifically, they assert that although rarely used in marketing, “institutional
theory can make a contribution to understanding variation in effectiveness of
marketing practices in firms” Hillebrand et al. (2011, p. 592). Their study focuses
on mimetic motives of CRM practices and reveals that social pressures are
predictors of isomorphisms across companies. Mimetic isomorphism occurs
when competitors are adopting management practices that are perceived to be
“best practice” and consequently places pressure on other firms to jump into the
bandwagon and to “normatively sanction” these practices.
28
institutional theory is relevant to explain organizational behaviours in their
institutional contexts. Lastly, the institutional theory has been around for a long
period and as early as “the end of the nineteen and beginning of the twentieth
centuries” (Scott, 2005). As a consequence of this, it is a robust theory which, if
applied to studies, will be less prone to generating uncertainty about its
contribution to the management literature.
Companies across industries, products and service lines are increasingly taking
into consideration culture when developing strategies (Bloch, 1995; Jinhong,
Song, & Stringfellow, 1998; McCracken, 1986). The rationale behind this is the
premise that consumers across different cultures, countries or regions have
different ways of viewing the world (Hitt et al., 2005; Jinhong et al., 1998). In the
Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, a company such as L’ Oreal is
already generating a large percentage of its revenues by tapping into consumers
across new cultures (far away from their home country), and specially in
emerging or developing economies (Fayolle, Basso, & Legrain, 2008). L’ Oreal
has set up a research centre called the “L’Oreal Institute for Ethnic Hair and Skin
Research” with the aim to assist its decision-makers to adapt their products to
the needs of their consumer base across international locations. A product that
was developed on the basis of understanding cultural differences amongst
consumer groups is the L’ Oreal SoftSheen haircare range that caters to the
ethnic female’s needs. Likewise, McDonald’s menu in India has been adapted to
make it relevant to the taste of Indian consumers. This adaptation to the culture is
also visible in the services industries. For instance, today, most banks offer
Islamic banking products for their Muslim communities.
29
Thompson, 2005; Hofstede & McCrae, 2004; Thomas, Haddon, Gilligan,
Heinzmann, & de Gournay, 2005). For example, Hall and Hall (1995) studied
cultures and they suggest that cultures can affect the way in which a company
interacts with its communities. They compare cultures on a scale of high to low
context. A high context communication or message rests on the implicit codes
whilst a low context communication achieves the opposite. This can be better
explained by taking the examples of Asian cultures where information is readily
shared amongst members of the community. Such communities are collectivists
as they abide by the principle of “sharing” or “ubuntu” as referred to as in South
Africa.
In this study, one draws on Hofstede’s fifth dimension of national culture, namely
short-term versus long-term orientation to investigate the implementation of CRM
programmes in the mobile and banking telephony sectors of Nigeria and South
Africa.
Hofstede’s cultural framework was originally based on the data collected by IBM
between 1967 and 1973. Based on the analysis of that data, he concluded that
there are four values that distinguish one country from the other one; namely
Individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, power distance, and
uncertainty avoidance and accomplishment.
The individualism vs. collectivism dimension takes into consideration how people
relate to one another in their cultures. In cultures dominated by individualism,
people tend to fend for themselves and their immediate relatives; and not for their
whole communities; whereas in collectivistic cultures, exchanges occurred
amongst members of the society who tend to look after one another.
30
Masculinity vs. femininity: This dimension defines culture along two values;
namely masculinity and femininity. According to Hofstede, feminine cultures are
characterised by fairness, social relationships and quality of life whereas in
masculine cultures, key values include achievement and ambitions.
Later on, Hofstede conducted additional research across twenty three countries
which led to the expansion of its culture dimensions from four to five (Minkov &
Hofstede, 2012). The fifth dimension is short-term versus long-term orientation.. It
is also referred to as “confucian dynamism”. This dimension deals with time
orientation consisting of negative pole (which reflects a static, short-term oriented
mentality) and positive pole (reflecting a future oriented, dynamic mentality)
(Hofstede & Bond, 1988).
Ryu and Moon (2009) assert that LTO cultures have become widely accepted as
an important factor when describing nations. In their studies, they investigate the
31
effects of LTO cultures on inter-organisational trust and conflict in a relationship
between manufacturers and suppliers. They conclude that LTO impacts
significantly on the relationship amongst channel members, with high LTO culture
positively affecting trust in relationships as well as suppressing the potential
conflicts amongst channel members. On the contrary, low LTO culture do not
generate trust between channel members. The result of this study implies that “
channel members in LTO cultures tend to anticipate benefits over the long-term,
thus they do not risk self-interest seeking behaviours on the part of their partners”
(Ryu & Moon, 2009, p. 7)
In a recent paper, Venaik, Zhu, and Brewer (2013) provide a critical analysis of
the LTO and the Future Orientation (FO) in the national culture models of
Hofstede and Globe. They conclude that LTO focuses on past (tradition) versus
future (thrift) aspect of societies whereas GLOBE FO practices capture the
present versus future (planning) practices of societies, and GLOBE FO values
reflect societal aspirations and preferences for planning.
32
2.3.2 Application of the Hofstede’s theory to the broad management context
In the same vein, Soares et al. (2007) applied Hofstede’s culture theory to the
research they conducted on international marketing. In their studies, they present
a variety of ways to conceptualising the culture constructs identified by Hofstede.
They suggest a “multimeasure approach to assess culture using regional
affiliation, indirect values and direct value inference” (Soares et al., 2007, p. 282).
Hofstede’s work was not just limited to the management environment, it was also
applied across diverse cultures and countries such as Croatia (Laznjak, 2011) or
Jordan (Alkailani, Azzam, & Athamneh, 2012), just to name a few.
In this review of the literature on Hofstede’s culture theory, it was found that most
studies focus on applying at least four of the six value dimensions that were
identified by Hofstede. A few studies that focused on the fifth dimensions
included (Bearden et al., 2006), (Ryu & Kim, 2010) and (Hassan, Shiu, & Walsh,
2011). Fang (2003) describes the limitations of this fifth dimension of short-term
vs. long-term orientation which represents the focus of the next section.
33
2.3.3 Limitations of Hofstede’s theory
Whilst Hofstede’s value dimensions of culture has received some support from
the academic community; this theory has also been criticised by other scholars
(Fang, 2003). In this section, the focus will be on the limitations of the fifth value
dimension; namely the short term vs. long term dimension also known as the
Confucian dynamism.
Basing his arguments on the oriental cultures of Yin and Yang, “the Chinese
philosophical of dualism and paradox in the manifest world”, (Fang, 2003, p. 355)
argues that Hofstede’s fifth value dimension of national cultures is inherently
flawed. According to Fang, everything one does has a yin and yang; and
consequently, the Confucian values cannot be exempted from this philosophy.
He sees the idea of a short-term and long-term orientation not as opposite from
each other; but rather as two extremes of a continuum. Moreover, Fang finds the
concept of Confucian dynamism confusing and difficult to be registered in both
the Western and Chinese minds. This defeats the rationale behind Hofstede’s
fifth dimension which is believed to be his oriental contribution to the value
dimensions of national culture. Another limitation of this fifth value dimension is
the methodology that was used. Unlike his first four dimensions that followed a
supposedly rigorous methodology using a wide range of samples across multiple
countries to arrive at robust results, it is believed that the results of the fifth
dimension did not follow the same approach; thereby leading Fang (2003, p. 362)
to conclude that “ the model is not based on logic”.
In their assessment of the long-term orientation value, scholars have noted that
there have been concerns raised in the extant literature about this fifth dimension
related specifically to the psychometric properties of Hofstede’s scales as well as
the issues of applying aggregate level measures to the individual level (Bearden
et al., 2006, p. 456; Hassan et al., 2011).
With these limitations that have been highlighted, one needs to define the unique
relevance of Hofstede’s fifth value dimension of national culture to this study.
34
2.3.4 Relevance of Hofstede’s fifth value dimension to this study
Hofstede’s culture theory and specially the fifth dimension which focuses on the
short-term versus long-term orientation of countries are relevant to this study.
This relevance stems from the fact that ascertaining the type of orientation
adopted by each country under study will undoubtedly, according to Hofstede,
affect the orientation of the company. In other words, a company that operates in
long-term orientated country will tend to be more innovative, take risk and focus
on long-term instead of short-term objectives.
In this study, although South Africa and Nigeria are both located in Africa, each
country has its peculiarities that need to be understood by the marketer. Based
on the current literature, it may appear that South Africa is long-term oriented as
opposed to Nigeria that appears to be short-term driven. This is illustrated in
Table 2-1 that exhibits the long-term orientation (LTO) index and factor scores of
23 countries and regions. According to this table, Nigeria is classified 22 nd out of
23 countries with a LTO score of 16 against that of 118 of China which is ranked
number one. This study tends to indicate that Nigeria is a short-term orientated
country which leads to the conclusion that companies that operate in Nigeria will
not be innovative or will have a short-term approach to solutions they bring to
problems they are faced with. Consequently, these companies have a static,
short-term oriented culture. With regard to South Africa, although it does not
appear on this table, its position may be inferred from those of other BRICS
countries which are represented on the table; namely Brazil, India and China.
These countries achieved an LTO score of 65, 61, and 118; and they were
ranked sixth, seventh and first (out of the 23 countries) respectively. They are on
the positive pole thereby indicating their dynamism and future, long-term driven
culture.
35
Table 2-1: LTO index and factor scores of 23 countries and regions
1 China - 118
2 Hong-Kong .91 96
3 Taiwan .74 87
4 Japan .59 80
6 Brazil .30 65
7 India .31 61
8 Thailand .11 56
9 Singapore -.04 48
10 Netherlands -.13 44
11 Bangladesh -.20 40
12 Sweden -.24 33
13 Poland -.36 32
14 Germany -.38 31
15 Australia -.38 31
17 USA -.42 29
19 Zimbabwe -.50 25
20 Canada -.53 23
21 Philippines -.61 19
22 Nigeria -.67 16
23 Pakistan -1.00 00
36
In addition to the above, the fifth dimension is relevant to this study because of
the fact that one cannot ignore the impact that culture has on marketing and
specially CRM implementation in emerging markets. There have not been any
prior studies in the CRM literature that have specially focused on the short-term
vs. long-term orientation dimension of Hofstede’s national value dimensions to
address a CRM problem. This study provides an avenue for this LTO theory to be
validated in the CRM and African contexts.
The next chapter explicates prior CRM studies available in the current literature.
Moreover, it provides an evaluation of the evolution, current state and trends of
mobile and banking industries in South Africa and Nigeria.
37
CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW
The effects of globalization are well documented in the literature and include:
Rising customers’ expectations, an emphasis on superb service quality by both
sellers and buyers, a proliferation of new technology, faster communication
channels, lower communication costs, and closer socio-economic interaction
between nations (Galbraith, 2005; Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1995). These market
dynamics have propelled a shift of power from the seller to the buyer and have
placed companies under pressure to meet and exceed their customers’ needs
(Mack, Mayo, & Khare, 2005; Peppard, 2000). In an attempt to capture their
target markets’ attention and improve diminishing margins, high performance
driven organizations have explored multiple avenues to respond to these market
changes. The old model of “design-build-sell” (a product-oriented view) has been
replaced by that of “sell-build-redesign” (a customer-oriented view). The
38
traditional process of mass marketing has been challenged by the “one-to-one
marketing” approach which has, at its core, the need for relationship building with
customers (Rygielski, Yen, & Wang, 2002, p. 485). Consequently, this concept of
relationship building which is based on relational exchanges between the firm
and its customers has progressively become important in the lexicon of both
Academics and Practitioners. In fact, the word “relationship” is used across such
disciplines as psychology (Judge & Bono, 2001; Schein, 1970), marketing (R.
Morgan & Hunt, 1994) and political science (Thorelli, 1986) which may, to some
extent, explicate its diverse meanings.
In the context of the marketing and management fields, Buttle (2009) suggests
that a relationship must be viewed from a dyadic perspective as it is a series of
interactive engagements with a minimum of two people over a period of time.
This position is supported by (R. Morgan & Hunt, 1994) who do not view
relationship as a once-off transaction but rather as a collaborative effort where
parties that interact get to learn from each other and thereby building sustainable
relationships with each other.
39
Figure 3-1: The relationship development process
RELATIONSHIP
PHASE
PHASE
CHARACTERISTICS
Norm
Expectations
3. Expansion Development 3. Mutual satisfaction
Development
with roles plus
additional gratification's
are sought.
According to Dwyer et al. (1987), the Awareness stage is the first step in the
relationship development process between two parties. During this stage, each
party recognises that the other party is a potential partner. In the second stage of
this process, called Exploration, the parties assess each other by taking into
consideration such factors as “obligations, benefits and burdens”. In phase three,
also referred to as Expansion, the goal congruence and cooperation between
parties generate more intimate interactions. Phases 4 and 5 are concerned with
commitment and Dissolution, respectively. Commitment occurs when both parties
are satisfied with their relationships and they want to continue with the
relationship whilst Dissolution takes place when a party withdraws from the
relationship.
40
During the being in phase, individuals involved in the relationship immerse
themselves in one another world with the intent to understand their experiences
and perception of the world. Being for requires an active participation into the
other party’s life by taking a position on issues affecting the person and also by
becoming his or her advocate. Being with is all about bringing “one’s own
knowledge and experience into the relationship”(Patton, 2002, p. 8).
Nguyen and Mutum (2012) found that the firm creates long lasting relationships
and successful CRM implementation when there is an effective blend of the
following four factors; namely (a) trust and commitment; (b) satisfaction; (c)
symmetry and dependence; and (d) fairness.
41
3.1.2 CRM defined
The concept of CRM was popularized in 1993 when Tom Siebel, the Founder of
Siebel Systems Inc., launched a software application that could assist companies
to automate their marketing activities (Buttle, 2004). Today, despite its growing
recognition amongst practitioners and academics, the meaning of CRM still
remains contested (Boulding, Staelin, Ehret, & Johnston, 2005; Payne & Frow,
2006). The available literature on CRM presents numerous definitions of what
CRM is, thereby leading (Winer, 2001, p. 91) to comment that “CRM means
different things to different people”.
From these definitions, it appears that IT is just an enabler for companies in their
quest to build and sustain profitable relationships with customers. In addition,
CRM is portrayed as a business philosophy that is engrained in a company’s
culture or way of doing business. As a result, its CRM strategy development and
implementation approach must be aligned with the overall business strategy.
42
Wahlberg, Strandberg, Sundberg, and Sandberg (2009) sought to assess what
has been published in what is perceived to be the four dominant approaches to
CRM namely; (a) Strategic, (b) Analytical, (c) Operational and (d) Collaborative.
They conclude their research by highlighting that operational and collaborative
CRM need to be given further attention in the future. A detailed description of
these CRM approaches is given below:
The strategic CRM process is spearheaded by the top leadership members of the
organization. These leaders represent cross-functional business areas including,
sales and marketing, logistics, production, finance, human capital development
and research and development, just to name a few (Lambert, 2010).
2. Analytical CRM is concerned with the analysis of customer data with the aim
to support customer management strategies within a company (E.W.T. Ngai, Xiu,
& Chau, 2009). This includes the underlying data warehouse architecture,
customer profiling and segmentation, systems, reporting, and analysis.
Wahlberg et al. (2009) found that an important focus area of analytical CRM is
the extensive analysis of customer data to improve marketing efficiency. Mishra
and Mishra (2009) advocate that analytical CRM leverages Operational CRM to
create customer insights using statistical methods.
With the right analytical tool and infrastructure, companies are not just able to
have a 360-degree view of the customer; but they can also understand customer
43
behavior at the most granular level. Business decisions based on analytics
enable the company to understand customers across a large number of variables
such as value, usage rate, profitability, attrition, churn rate, product usage,
location and dormancy.
The integration of operational and analytical CRM provides a 360 degree view of
the customer across all channels thereby enabling the company to capitalize on
the relevant customer opportunities. Such opportunities could include cross and
up-selling of products, reactivation of dormant accounts or reduction of the churn
rate. Figure 3-2 illustrates the feedback loop between Operational and Analytical
CRM.
44
Figure 3-2: Feedback loop between Operational and Analytical CRM
Operational
data
Operational CRM Analytical CRM
(OCRM) (ACRM)
Customer
intelligence
4. Collaborative CRM is still a blurred concept (Reinhold & Alt, 2009). It has
been defined as the exchange that occur amongst such parties as suppliers,
clients, consumers and manufacturers through the usage customer channels with
the view to achieve a common goal: To enhance customer relationships
(Reinhold & Alt, 2009). Although customers may be external targets, they also
play a participative role in the collaborative CRM process.
45
3.1.3 CRM related concepts
From the review of the extant literature on CRM, there are such concepts as
Relationship Marketing (C. Grönroos, 1997; Gummesson, 2004), Database
Marketing (Kumar & Reinartz, 2006), Services Marketing (Vargo & Lusch, 2008),
Customer Management (Payne, Storbacka, & Frow, 2008), and Total Customer
Relationship Management (Su, Tsai and Hsu, 2010), just to name a few, that
have emerged. The common denominator amongst these concepts is the focus
on customers. Table 3-1 provides an overview and definition of CRM related
concepts that were found the literature.
However, it can be deduced from the literature that the concept of customer
experience is mainly used in relation to service quality, customer service and a
lasting and fulfilling emotional experience for customers (Berry, Carbone, &
Haeckel, 2002; Mascarenhas, Kesavan, & Bernacchi, 2006); whilst CRM is
viewed as a more strategic approach to customer management (Payne & Frow,
2005). In other words, it is implied that CRM excludes the operational side which
deals with customer experience. This is a misperception that needs to be
discarded as CRM does not just happen in the back-end but also incorporate the
front-end engagement with the customer to assist the company to achieve its
CRM objectives (Buttle, 2009). These objectives are tightly linked with customer
loyalty, improved service quality and reduced complaints.
46
Table 3-1: An Overview of CRM-related Concepts
1 Customer Experience Johnston and Kong, 2011 It involves the customer’s cognitive, affective,
Management emotional, physical and rational responses to a
Palmer, 2010
company and its products.
Pine and Gilmore, 1998
2 Customer Knowledge Akhavan et al., 2008 Also known as “Knowledge enabled CRM”;
Management CKM is an area of management where various
Knowledge Management instruments and
procedures are applied to support the
exchange of customer knowledge within an
organization and between an organization and
its customers.
3 Customer Management Payne and Frow, 2009 Implementation and tactical management of
customer interactions.
4 Database Marketing Kumar and Reinartz, 2006 It involves the gathering of relevant customer
data and devising appropriate campaign that
can appeal to the targeted groups. If done
effectively, the company can maximize its
profits and strengthen its relationship with its
customers.
5 Global Customer Ramasehsan, Bejou, Jain, The strategic application of the processes and
Relationship Mason and Pancras, 2006 practices of CRM by firms operating in multiple
Management Ramaseshan Kumar, Sunder countries, or by firms serving customers who
and Ramaseshan, 2011 span multiple countries.
6 One-to-one Marketing Rogers and Peppers, 1999 One-to-one marketing is a four-step process of
identifying, differentiating, Interacting and
Communicating with customers.
7 Relationship Marketing Gronroos, 1997; Gummesson, Interaction of networks with the view to develop
2004;Leick, 2007 relationships that meet the objectives of the
parties involved and that can be sustained over
their lifetime.
48
3.2 Antecedents to Successful Customer Relationship Management
The antecedents to successful CRM refer to those CRM practices that must be in
place to ensure that the CRM goals of reduced customer complaints, increased
sales, reduced costs and increased customer loyalty, retention and acquisition
are met (Eid, 2007). These determinants are the driving forces behind CRM
success and organizational competitive advantage (Raman, Wittmann, &
Rauseo, 2006). They are attributes and variables with considerable effect on
organizational results (Buttle, 2009).
Empirical evidence reveals that the basis for CRM success is “an integrated and
balanced approached between technology, people and processes” (Mendoza et
al., 2007, p. 914). Whilst one may support this increased focus on key
determinants of CRM success, scholars such as Burgess and Steenkamp (2006)
and (Kumar et al., 2011) claim that the existing literature on CRM has been
restricted to industrialized markets. They claim that the stark differences
between industrialized and developing markets should not lead to the
generalisability of findings from industrialized markets as these may not be
applicable to the developing market context. This view is echoed by (Sharma &
Iyer, 2007) who posit that considerations need to be given to the context in which
the company operates in order to devise successful CRM strategies. These
remarks have prompted more localized CRM research on emerging markets with
a stronger focus on China, India and the Middle East countries (Haridasan &
Venkatesh, 2011; Rouholamini & Venkatesh, 2011; Shengdong & Xue, 2011).
Industrialized and emerging market perspectives on CRM success of what is
available in the literature will now be presented. A synthesis of this analysis and
key insights drawn from this literature review will also be provided in the
subsequent sections
50
5. Information systems/technology integration: It is the ability to integrate the
legacy systems with the newly implemented CRM systems in a way that allows
for a 360 degree view of the customer across all the identified customer touch
points. It also means moving away from a siloed approach by having a primary
single repository of customer data that is updated timely and shared across the
business.
6. Change management and training: Managing change is ranked quite high
because most organizations have to shift their paradigms which may mostly be
sales, process or product-driven to a customer-centric approach. To effect these
changes in the business, the training of employees is necessary. The training
becomes even more critical for customer-facing employees as they have to
project the right image of the organization and its new vision to customers. “In
general, change management activities empower, inform, and allow
organizational members to exert a significant degree of influence over the
innovation effort” (Zablah et al., 2004, p. 289).
7. Internal stakeholder management refers to the management of expectations of
all employees across different hierarchical levels of the organizations. It is
understood that if these employees are clearly communicated to and actively
participate in the CRM programme, this can yield positive results for the
customers, employees and the organization as a whole.
8. Business process re-engineering: According to scholars from the high income
industrialized markets, “the main processes to be optimized are those through
which the customer engages with the organization”(Mendoza et al., 2007, p.
915). They include sales, marketing and service processes. Other processes
could be industry related such as the banking processes or the mobile telephony
processes; and
9. CRM measures: These are measures that are qualitative and quantitative in
nature. They do provide the business with a view on how the CRM program is
being implemented.
51
Figure 3-3: CRM Critical Success Factors
Sources: Various sources from the CRM literature including (Eid, 2007; Foss et
al., 2008; Hsin Hsin, 2007; Stan Maklan, Knox, & Peppard, 2011; Mendoza et al.,
2007; E. W. T Ngai, 2005)
The above spider diagram shows that a shared vision and top management
support are the two most critical factors for success when implementing CRM in
a company. These two factors are directly followed by training and change
management. Business process re-engineering, CRM measures, technology
integration and interdepartmental cooperation are ranked on the same level.
Sound project management is surprisingly the lowest rank measure for CRM
success; but still an important metric.
52
Table 3-2: Review of Critical CRM Success Factors in Industrialized Markets
2 Executive buy-in
Becker, Greve and Albers (2009); Foss, Stone and
Ekinci, King and Burgess (2008); Eid, 2007; Mendoza,
Marius, Perez and Griman (2006); Bull (2003)
4 Interdepartmental cooperation King and Burgess (2008); Mendoza, Marius, Perez and
Griman (2006); Ryals and Knox (2001)
5 Information systems/technology Foss, Stone and Ekinci (2008); Mendoza, Marius, Perez
integration and Griman, (2006); Eid (2007); Bull (2003);
6 Change management and training Eid ( 2007); Hsin Hsin (2007); Raman, Wittmann and
Rauseo (2006); Zablah , Bellenger and Johnston (2005);
Rigby, Reichheld & Schefter, (2002)
7 Internal stakeholder management Becker, Greve and Albers (2009); Bose (2002)
9 CRM measures Eid (2007); Bull (2003); Ryals and Knox (2001) ; Winer
(2001)
In their assessment of country effects on CRM success, Sharma and Iyer (2007)
contend that the success of CRM strategies in international markets depends on
the level of a country’s infrastructure development and its marketing institutional
development. Moreover, they assert that because of its costs and lack of tangible
results, “in countries where there is both low infrastructure development and low
marketing institutional development, it is suggested that CRM strategies not be
implemented at this time.”(Sharma & Iyer, 2007, p. 73).
Shengdong and Xue (2011) look specifically at CRM effectiveness in the mobile
telephony sector of China. They suggest that in China, for CRM to be effective,
organizations should not give up unprofitable customers. Moreover, they note
that technology and intuition are drivers of CRM success in an emerging market
environment. More studies on CRM in emerging markets have been conducted in
India (Haridasan & Venkatesh, 2011), Iran (Rouholamini & Venkatesh, 2011),
Pakistan (Rahman & Azhar, 2008) and Saudi Arabia (Almotairi, 2010).
54
quality can build and maintain customer loyalty. Specifically, they investigated
how CRM could be effective by using two loyalty indices such as word of mouth
and cross and up-selling.
Kumar et al. (2011) and Ramaseshan et al. (2006) researched the global
diffusion of CRM. Ramaseshan et al. (2006, p. 196) define Global CRM (GCRM)
as “the strategic application of the processes and practices of CRM by firms
operating in multiple countries, or by firms serving customers who span multiple
countries, which incorporates relevant differences in business practices,
competition, regulatory characteristics, country characteristics, and consumer
characteristics to CRM strategies to maximize customer value across the global
customer portfolio of the firm”.
Kumar et al. (2011) propose a conceptual model that outlines the internal and
factors that drive the variation in the learning effects across regions. Specifically,
this conceptual model describes the progression in the adoption of GCRM
technology in such markets as Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific and also
reveals that “collectivistic cultures, which are widespread in Asia-Pacific, have
lower rate of innovation and higher rates of imitation than individualistic
cultures(such as North America and Europe)”(Kumar et al., 2011, p. 29). Further,
they assert that decision-makers of companies across the globe have found
cross-regional learning a key factor for effective CRM implementation in their
respective companies. They conclude by encouraging companies that serve
customers across multiple geographies “to reconcile the country-specific and
global requirements of GCRM” in order to best address the needs of their
customers as there is no “one size fits all” solution to GCRM”(Kumar et al., 2011).
55
level of sophistication of the market infrastructure are different. Hence, adaptation
to the emerging market context is required. However they warn against the use of
composite indices such as the Growth Competitiveness Index ranking, Business
Competitive Index ranking, Governance indicators, Corruption Perception Index,
Composite Country Risk points and Weight in Emerging Markets index when
developing strategies in emerging markets. Instead, they propose that companies
should capitalize on “institutional voids” by applying their proposed five context
framework of socio-cultural systems, openness, product markets, labour markets
and capital markets. It is evident from this study that the institutional context of
emerging markets is critical in determining the success or failure of business
strategies.
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that the authors tend to refer to
their broad experience in the consulting environment without emphasizing how
and where their five context framework was tested and what results were
obtained. This leads one to assert that their study is not motivated on sound,
scientific, empirically based grounds; but rather on their consulting experience.
56
Kumar et al. (2011) and Ramaseshan et al. (2006) have started to identify both
internal and external factors to be considered by global companies with multiple
locations, whilst Sharma and Iyer (2007) have suggested that marketing
infrastructure and institutions affect CRM success.
The contingency factors that are specific to each of the markets they have
studied have not been highlighted. This is the gap that this research will be filling.
By identifying those contingency factors that can impede on or enhance the
success of CRM implementation in Nigeria and South Africa, this study intends to
make a significant contribution to this body of knowledge. Table 3-3 contrasts
emerging and developed markets views on CRM success factors.
57
Table 3-3: Contrasting Emerging and Developed Market Views on CRM Success Factors
Item Critical Success Authors Critical Success Authors Contrasting emerging and developed
No. Factor market views based on the extant CRM
Factor literature
1 Shared vision Hsin Hsin (2007) Service quality Haridasan and The papers reviewed on CRM in emerging
Venkatesh markets have tended to focus on
(2011) constructs applied in high income,
industrialized markets without providing
2 Executive buy-in much insight on the peculiarities and the
contingency factors of CRM
Becker, Greve and Knowledge Fan and Ku
implementation in their own context. Kumar
Albers (2009); Foss, sharing/collaboration (2010) et al. (2011) and Ramaseshan et al. (2006)
Stone and Ekinci, King have started to identify both internal and
and Burgess (2008); external factors to be considered by global
Eid, 2007; Mendoza, companies with multiple locations; whilst
Marius, Perez and Sharma and Iyer (2006) have suggested
Griman (2006); Bull that marketing infrastructure and
institutions affect CRM success.
(2003)
7 Internal stakeholder Becker, Greve and Marketing infrastructure Sharma and Iyer
management Albers (2009); Bose and marketing (2007)
(2002) institution
8 Business process re- Eid (2007) Service process fit Fan and Ku
engineering (2010)
59
3.3 Benefits and Challenges of CRM Implementation
3.3.1 Introduction
3.3.2 Benefits
Richards and Jones (2008, p. 123) summarize the benefits of CRM as consisting
of seven core elements: “Improved ability to target profitable customers;
integrated offerings across channels; improved sales force efficiency and
effectiveness; individualized marketing messages; customised products and
services; improved customer service efficiency and effectiveness; and improved
pricing”. Their meta-analysis of CRM benefits as well as their value drivers can
be found in Appendix B.
In a review of the literature on the main advantages of CRM, Ko, Kim, Kim, and
Woo (2008, p. 66) list the following amongst key advantages: “increased profits,
more customer relationships, more repurchases, accurate customer information
collected, enhanced customer loyalty, improved efficiency of customer
management, effect of word of mouth, reduced cost of new customer acquisition,
greater ease in developing new products, increased sales by additional
purchases, reduced cost of direct marketing, increased brand loyalty and
increased customer LTV (lifetime value)”.
Rigby et al. (2003) and Reichold, Kolbe, and Brenner (2001) concur that there
are numerous benefits of CRM. For example, Reichold et al. (2001) claim that a
5% improvement in customer retention can enhance profit by between 45 and
95% across a variety of industries (Buttle, 2004). Table 3-4 illustrates the
divergent measures of CRM implementation success. It shows that there are a
variety of measures used by companies to evaluate the successful impact of their
CRM programmes. These measures can range from return on investment (ROI),
sales generated, total number of CRM projects implemented to conversion rates.
61
Table 3-4: The Divergent Measures of CRM Implementation Success
3.3.3 Challenges
CRM implementation results in companies indicate that there are still enormous
challenges faced by companies when implementing their CRM programmes
embedded in the implementation of CRM (Bull, 2003). CRM is not cheap. It is
hard work and requires significant resources to ensure its success. Its high
potential rate of failure has led some business executives to associate the CRM
62
acronyms with “Can’t Recover Money” (Shea, Brown, White, Curran-Kelly, &
Griffin, 2006, p. 3). Due to is high failure rate of past CRM initiatives, many
industry observers and analysts are bearish on initiatives currently in progress
(Crockett, 2007).
When comparing costs against the revenues generated from their CRM
investments, most companies have had to conclude that their investments have
not yielded the dividends they had anticipated (Woodcock & Stone, 2003). This
is further evidenced by the research conducted by Foss et al. (2008) who noted
that a study conducted by Gartner, a global research company, indicates that
70% of CRM projects result in either losses or no bottom line improvement in
company performance.
As pointed out by Rigby, Reichheld, and Schefter (2002), the reasons for CRM
failure is that most executives do not understand what they are implementing,
they do not how much it costs and how long it will take the company to start
benefiting from its investments. They have subsequently described the four perils
of CRM as consisting of:
63
Inadequate measurement of systems
An additional investigation by Ahearne et al. (2012) points out that CRM has
been shown to be unsuccessful due to the fact that the selling context in which
CRM is implemented is not considered by organizations.
Piskar and Faganel (2009) highlight the reasons behind the failure of the
implementation of CRM in a pharmaceutical company in Slovenia. Some key
reasons for this failure include the lack of a strategy, the absence of an
automated environment (as the CRM programme was implemented using an
Excel spread sheet), the lack of employees training, the project’s sponsor and
owner was the area Director with no real impact on the overall business, the
planned CRM implementation was inappropriate as it was scheduled during a
period where most employees go on vacation, a heavy reliance on the supplier
who kept changing the functionality of the CRM systems. Table 3-5 illustrates
the divergent measures of CRM implementation failures.
64
Table 3-5: The Divergent Measures of CRM Implementation Failures
Failure rate
Measures Source Cited in
(percentage)
Dickie’s survey of 1700
83.1% Ineffective usage of CRM tool (Shengdong & Xue, 2011)
companies
CRM implementation failure rate
Bush, Moore, and Rocco
80% based on total CRM projects (Ahearne et al., 2012)
2005
implemented
The measure used is the total Giga survey conducted in
number of CRM projects 2001
(Bull, 2003)
70% (or more) implemented. It is estimated that at Pitt et al (1995); Ewusi-
(H. Wilson et al., 2002)
least 70% of projects implemented Mensah and Przasnyski
will fail (1991)
It is estimated that at least 70% of
total CRM projects implemented will
result in either (B. Foss, M. Stone, & Y.
70% Gartner Survey
losses or no bottom-line Ekinci, 2008)
improvement in
organisation performance
The number of CRM systems
implemented that failed using an in-
60% Macsweeney (2000) (Bull, 2003)
house/custom-developed CRM
software
65
3.4 Market Analysis
Table 3-6 provides an assessment of the Nigerian and South African contexts
along such characteristics as political history, economy, socio-cultural factors,
ICT development index, financial sector development index, democracy index,
corruption perception index and global competitiveness index.together with
relevant sources.
Table 3-6: Assessment of the Nigerian and South African Contexts
Political history: Former British colony South Africa was under the (Akwule, 1991)
Nigeria gained its independence in apartheid regime between 1948 http://www.sahistory.or
1960. and 1994 g.za/liberation-
Two main coups in 1966 and 1983 It is believed that repression was struggle-south-africa
brought a military government to rife in South Africa long before (CIA, 2013)
power the apartheid system was
A bloody civil war from 1967-1970 entrenched
st
Previous and still existing religious, 1 democratic elections took
ethnic and economic tensions place in 1994. President Nelson
between North and South due to Mandela was elected as the first
disparities of education and black president
economic status Country is divided in racial terms
Nigerian President Olusegun consisting of Africans, Coloured,
Obasanjo, South African President Whites and Indians
Mbeki and Algerian President Rated as one of the politically
Bouteflika launch New Partnership stable countries in Africa
for African Development or Nepad
with the aim to foster trade in Africa.
Economy: GDP (Current US $) (billions): 173.0 GDP (Current US $) (billions): World Bank (2010)
GDP growth (annual %): 5.6% 285.0
Inflation, GDP Deflator (annual %): - GDP growth (annual %): -1.8%
0.6% Inflation, GDP Deflator (annual
%): 7.3
Socio-cultural: Africa’s most populous country with Population of 50 million United Nations (2011)
over 162.4 million inhabitants inhabitants
Official language is English; but 11 official languages: English, http://www.who.int/cou
many Nigerian also speak Pidgin, Xhosa, Sotho, Zulu, Afrikaans, ntries/zaf/en/
Yoruba, Ibo and Hausa Key social issues include high http://www.unicef.org/i
More than 250 tribes crime rate, rampant HIV/AIDS, nfobycountry/southafri
Life expectancy: 52 years for men lack of cohesion amongst racial ca_statistics.html
68
independent churches
ICT development index: combines Rank: 122 (2010); 125 (2008) Rank: 97 (2010); 94 (2008) ITU 2011
11 indicators into a single measure Score: 1.85 (2010) 125 1.54 (2008) Score: 3.0 (2010); 2.71 (2008)
that can be used as a benchmarking
tool globally, regionally and at the
country level to compare
developments in information
communication technologies. These
are related to ICT access, use and
skills, such as households with a
computer the number of Internet
users; and literacy levels.
Financial sector development Rank: 60 (2011); Rank: 29 (2011); World Economic
index: provides a holistic view of the Score: 2.4 out of 7 Score: 3.64 out of 7 Forum-Financial
factors that contributes to long term Development Report,
development of financial systems in 2011
countries. It resides on seven pillars World Bank
consisting of institutional
environment, business environment,
financial stability, banking and non-
banking financial services, financial
markets and financial access.
69
Democracy index: is an index Rank: 119 out of 167 countries Rank: 28 out of 167 countries Economic Intelligence
compiled that measures the state of (2011); 123 out of 167 (2010) (2011); 30 out of 167 (2010) Unit (2011)
democracy in 167 countries using 60 Score: 3.83 out of 10 (2011); 3.7 out Score: 7.79 out of 10 (2011); 7.79
indicators grouped in five different of 10 (2010) out of 10 (2010)
categories: electoral process and
pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of
government, political participation
and political culture.
Corruption perception index: Rank: 139 out of 174 countries Rank: 69 out of 174 countries (Transparency, 2012)
ranks countries according to their (2012) (2012)
perceived levels of public sector Score: 2.7 out of 10 Score: 4.3 out of 10
corruptions on a scale of 0 (Highly
corrupt) to 10 (Very clean)
Global competitiveness index: is Rank: 127 out of 142 countries (for Rank: 50 out of 142 countries World Economic
th
a comprehensive tool that measures both 2011 and 2010) (2011) and was ranked 54 in Forum, Global
the Score: 3.4 out of 7 2010 Competitiveness
micro-and macroeconomic Score: 4.3 out of 7 Report 2011-2012
foundations of national
competitiveness which is defined as
“the set of institutions, policies, and
factors that determine the level of
productivity of a country”.
70
Based on the above assessment, it is evident that South Africa outperforms
Nigeria in most, if not, all key indicators mentioned below. With a population of
over 150 million inhabitants, Nigeria can offer businesses a superb opportunity to
tap into its consumer markets. However, it appears from the above indicators that
this can be a challenging proposition as the country is neither globally
competitive nor has a good corruption perceptions index. Although there have
been pockets of instability in different parts of the country, its socio-political
environment is still rated as fairly stable (Soludo & Governor, 2007). Nigeria has
made noteworthy strides on the economic front over the past few years. It is
forecast that this growth will continue and will position Nigeria as one of the top
thirteen emerging countries by 2050 (Hawksworth & Cookson, 2008).
With regards to South Africa, despite its political struggle during the apartheid
era, which culminated with the first democratic elections of 1994, the country has
fared well on the economic front and also on its ability to attract foreign direct
investment (Schwab, 2011). However, there is still a lot to be done in public
service delivery, policy stability, reduction of employment and high crime rate.
Similarly, the ICT sector must be given more attention (Blanke et al., 2011). The
Marikana unrests in the Lonmin mines that occurred in August 2012 and which
led to the death of 44 miners have “threatened to weaken Africa’s largest
economy” (Chapple & Barnett, 2012). On the basis of this latest development, the
trajectory of FDI in South Africa remains uncertain.
This section focuses on the banking and mobile telephone sectors. It highlights
key global players in each industry, the major developments and trends as well
as the current state of each industry in both Nigeria and South Africa. Moreover,
the adoption of CRM in the mobile and banking industries are discussed.
71
A. The banking sector
The Lehman collapse on 15 September 2008 had profound impact on both the
high income, industrialized and emerging economies (Hesse & Frank, 2009).
Table 3-7 demonstrates the world’s largest bank based on market capitalization
as of January 2012. China dominates the list with 4 Chinese banks listed
amongst the top 10 banks in the world, then followed by the USA.
Source : http://www.relbanks.com/best-banks
- Banking in Africa
72
Table 3-8: Top Banks in Africa
Capital Assets
Rank Bank Country
($m) ($m)
1 Standard Bank Group RSA 7,275 162,133
2 FirstRand Banking Group RSA 6,303 106,156
3 Absa Group RSA 4,742 83,11
4 Investec Bank RSA 4,324 55,679
5 Nedbank Group RSA 3,594 60,905
6 Zenith International Bank Nigeria 2,935 15,155
7 First Bank of Nigeria Nigeria 2,808 13,339
8 Attijariwafa Bank Morocco 2,637 32,362
9 Groupe Banques Populaire Morocco 2,606 23,37
10 Oceanic Bank Nigeria 1,75 8,265
Source : http://www.relbanks.com/best-banks
Table 3-8 shows that South Africa dominates the ranking as 50% of the top 10
banks in Africa are from South Africa.
Banking in the African context can be viewed from both the formal and informal
sector perspectives. People who are formally employed are normally good
prospects for banking products from established banking institutions. Whilst the
informal markets which was previously disregarded by financial institutions, have
created an opportunity for new players, namely, the micro-lending institutions to
provide the necessary financial access to this segment of the population. Most
products offered by these lending institutions tend to be short-term loans
reimbursable between 1 and 6 months.
CRM is being implemented in the banking sector in Africa and the proliferation of
cellphones have made this even more relevant (Anderson, 2010).
73
In Kenya, mobile money transfer through M-pesa has become a convenient way
for the African consumers to transfer money. Similarly, Econet Wireless has
recently launched in Zimbabwe Ecocash to allow its consumers to transfer
money via their mobile phones. It was also reported by Total telecom (2011) that
MasterCard has invested in mobile software developer mFoundry to expand
consumers’ ability to use their smartphones as payment devices. In November
2011, First National Bank, one of South Africa’s top four banks launched its
ewallet solution which enables its customers to pay money from ewallet directly
to a bank account. This facility also allows for the payment of bills (Mansfield,
2011).
74
Figure 3-4: Global Mobile Subscriptions by Regions Q4 2011
Mobile banking has changed the face of banking in Africa. Nowadays more and
more consumers, regardless of their locations, access (or lack of it) to
infrastructure are now able to do their banking over the phone. According to
(Gartner, 2012), worldwide smartphone sales to end users soared to 149 million
units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 47.3 per cent increase from the fourth
quarter of 2010. It also published that total smartphone sales in 2011 reached
472 million units and accounted for 31 percent of all mobile devices sales, up 58
percent from 2010 (Gartner, 2012). Table 3-9 illustrates the main mobile device
vendors, their units sold and market share acquired in 2011 and 2010.
75
Table 3-9: Worldwide Mobile Sales by Vendors during Q4 (2011)
2011 2010
2011 Market Share 2010 Market Share
Company
(%) (%)
Units Units
Nokia 422,478.3 23.8 461,318.2 28.9
Samsung 313,904.2 17.7 281,065.8 17.6
Apple 89,263.2 5.0 46,598.3 2.9
LG Electronics 86,370.9 4.9 114,154.6 7.1
ZTE 56,881.8 3.2 29,686.0 1.9
Research In Motion 51,541.9 2.9 49,651.6 3.1
HTC 43,266.9 2.4 24,688.4 1.5
Huawei 40,663.4 2.3 23,814.7 1.5
Motorola 40,269.0 2.3 38,553.7 2.4
Sony Ericsson 32,597.5 1.8 41,819.2 2.6
Others 597,326.9 33.7 485,452.0 30.4
Total 1,774,564.1 100.0 1,596,802.4 100.0
The meteoric rise of Africa’s mobile cellular subscriptions has exceeded forecasts
made by industry experts (ITU, 2012). In September 2011, Africa became the
second most connected region in the world in terms of mobile subscriptions
count, reaching more than half a billion number of mobile telephone users on the
African continent (Rao, 2011). It is forecast that an additional 224 million mobile
users will be added to this base over the next five years (Rao, 2011). Whilst the
penetration rate in the rest of the African continent remains low, averaging at
41%, in South Africa it exceeded 110% penetration barrier during the year 2011
(Blycroft, 2012). This high penetration rate in South Africa is telling of the state of
its mobile telephony industry, which is, without doubt, saturated.
76
Product (GDP) (Esselaar, Gillwald, Moyo, & Naidoo, 2010). According to
Esselaar et al. (2010, p. 4), “mobile services continue to grow, with the operators
reporting more than 100% SIM penetration, though the 2007-2008 IRIA
household survey suggests a penetration rate close to 65%, with at least 10% of
respondents indicating they have multiple SIM cards.” In South Africa, the
Department of Communications reported more than 37 million users or about 95
percent of mobile phone users, had registered by June 2011 (Jentsch, 2012).
The SA mobile telephony industry has six players namely Vodacom, MTN, Cell-C
and 8ta (the latest entrant in the mobile telephony industry) and the virtual mobile
operators: Virgin Mobile and Red Bull. These virtual mobile operators use the
infrastructure provided by current mobile operators.
All of the above-mentioned companies service both the post-paid and pre-paid
markets. Statistics from the service providers show that more than 85% of these
companies’ customers are concentrated on the prepaid market. A research report
published by RIA (2012) has revealed that the South African prepaid pricing
structure is one of the highest in Africa. It asserts that South African mobile
operators do not compete on price. “MTN has had the highest prices for the low-
user basket, at between ZAR 95,05 and ZAR 96,04, while Vodacom has stayed
constant at ZAR 81,26. At the end of 2011, the average price of the low-user
basket was ZAR 81,91, with 8ta at an average of ZAR 77,45 and Cell C at ZAR
72,15.” (RIA, 2012, p. 4).
77
Figure 3-5: South Africa, low user basket in Rand (zar)
Mobile operators in South Africa operate in a fast paced and challenging industry
characterized by network connectivity issues, highly competitive markets (due to
mobile number portability which allows cellphone users to change service
providers whilst keeping their phone number has increased churn rate), price
sensitive customers in the pre-paid market, ongoing regulatory pressures and an
increasingly informed and savvy customer (Buys & Malebo, 2004; RIA, 2012).
Whilst one may acknowledge the great success of mobile operators in South
Africa, it is understood from the extant literature that the largest and untapped
mobile telephony opportunities on the continent remain in Nigeria.
78
The telecommunications industry in Nigeria is regulated by the Nigeria
Communications Commission (NCC). The NCC, just like many other regulators
has seen its mandate expand over the past five years to also include information
technology and broadcasting (ITU, 2012). “More recently, electronic content,
cybersecurity, data protection, privacy and environmental issues have entered
into the purview of regulators. The increased use of online applications and
services to communicate and do business (such as social media, cloud services,
e-payment and other m-banking services) bring a host of new regulatory issues
to the fore, for all ICT stakeholders” (ITU, 2012, p. 2).
Since the introduction of GSM in September 2001 in Nigeria, the face of its
telecommunications industry has changed drastically and even surpassed the
most optimistic projections on the number of subscribers (Esharenana, 2005). It
has been forecasted that Nigeria will be the largest mobile market by 2016 with
over 150 million subscribers (Informa telecoms media, 2012).
Source:(Blycroft, 2012)
79
As per table 3-6, there are 5 main players in the mobile telephony sector of
Nigeria consisting of MTN (with the largest market share of 40%), followed by
Globacom (20%), Airtel, Etisalat and Mtel.
From the above, it appears that CRM is increasingly being implemented in the
mobile telephony and banking sectors within Africa. It also needs to be added
that there are likely to be differences between emerging and developed markets’
approaches to CRM execution in these industries. This is the purpose of the
study. To further address this research purpose, an embedded case study
analysis of four companies across Nigeria and South Africa was conducted. The
next chapter expands on the research methodology that was employed.
81
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter covers six sections, including (1) an introduction, (2) the research
design and paradigm, (3) the population and sample, (4) the data collection
method, (5) the methods of data analysis and interpretation and (6) the criteria for
rigorous qualitative data analysis.
4.1 Introduction
In essence, social research provides three types of research methods consisting
of qualitative, quantitative and mixed research methods (Creswell, 2009). Each of
these research methods has both advantages and disadvantages and they
should be given some consideration by the researcher in the initial stages of the
research process.
82
Figure 4-1: The Research Process
Prepare
Share Analyze
At each stage of this research process, there were clearly defined tasks
performed by the researcher that allowed for a sound, robust research input and
throughput which, at the end of the process, positively impacted on the overall
research output and the reliability, credibility and validity of the research findings.
Table 4-1 provides an overview of the description of key activities that took place
during each research stage:
83
Table 4-1: Description of Research Activities by Research Stage
Research stage Description of activities
Plan Define the research objective and the problem to be
resolved.
Identify research questions or other rationale for doing a
case study
Select an appropriate research method
Understand its strengths and limitations
Design Define the unit of analysis and the likely case (s) to be
studied
Identify the case study design (single, multiple, holistic,
embedded)
Define procedures to maintain case study quality
Prepare Hone skills as a case study investigator
Develop a case study protocol
Conduct a pilot
Identify key facilitators for fieldwork in each company as
well as potential research respondents
Set up interview dates and times
Collect Follow case study protocol
Use multiple sources of evidence
Create case study evidence
Maintain chain of evidence
Analyse Explore rival explanations
Develop data summary form for each case study
Further analyse and validate data in Maxqda content
analysis software
Individual and cross analyses of companies under study
Share Present and write up study results
Display enough evidence for reader to reach own
conclusions
Review and re-write until done well
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4.2 Research Design and Paradigm
4.2.1 Research design and motivation for the selected research method
According to Creswell (2009), there are three primary factors that affect the
choice of research design; namely world view, strategy and methods. Other
factors include the research problem, personal experiences and the audience.
Patton (2002) affirms that the research design starts with defining the purpose of
the research which can be seen as the controlling force of the research.
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data results in the understanding of the individual case that may include a
person, a company, an industry and so forth Woodside (2010).
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In the context of this research, an inductive approach is also relevant because of
the dearth of studies done on CRM in emerging markets. Therefore, by
employing this research method, the researcher aims at developing a theory
based on the experiences of research participants and also the data gathered
from other sources.
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4.2.2 Research paradigm
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Table 4-2: Four Categories of Scientific Paradigms and their Elements
Paradigm
Element and definition Positivism (1) Critical Theory (2) Constructivism (3) Realism (4)
Ontology: it is the reality Reality is real and “Virtual” reality shaped by Multiple local and specific Reality is “real” but only
investigated by the apprehensible social, economic, ethnic, “constructed” realities imperfectly and
researcher political, cultural, and probabilistically
gender values, crystallized apprehensible
over time.
Epistemology: it is the Objectivist: findings true Subjectivist: value Subjectivist: created findings Modified objectivist:
relationship between the mediated findings findings probably true
reality being investigated
and the researcher
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Furthermore, although case studies are by nature inductive, they also include
some deduction based on prior theory the researcher would have been exposed
to as it would be unpractical for any researchers to start the research with an
“absolutely clean theoretical slate” (Perry, 1998, p. 788). Parkhe (1993) and
Perry (1998) note though that both extremes (inductive and deductive) are not
necessary.
The population defines a set of entities from which the research sample is to be
drawn (Eisenhardt, 1989). The selection of an appropriate population should not
be taken lightly as it “helps to define the limits for generalizing the findings”
(Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 537). This study focuses on mobile telephony and banking
companies in Nigeria and South Africa. The respondents consist of CRM
Strategy Developers and Implementers involved in a customer relationship
management programme between the years 2005-2012.
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A non-probabilistic sampling in the form of purposeful sampling is used in this
study. Patton (2002) defines purposeful sampling as “information rich cases from
which one can learn a great deal about issues of central importance to the
purpose of the research.” As described below in Table 4-3, there were a total of
four cases spanning two countries and two industries with a CRM implementation
age ranging from 2 to 12 years.
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Table 4-3: Overview of Companies Involved in this Study
SATEL: Mobile telephony Rated amongst the top 3 players, this mobile telephonic operator is a multinational 07 years
company in South Africa company with a strong brand awareness in the south African market. It services both
the pre-and post-paid markets. And provides data, voice and telemetry offering
solutions to its South African customer base.
SABA: Banking institution in This is one of South Africa’s top 4 banks with a footprint in other markets in Africa. It 12 years
South Africa has a strong brand equity and a large customer database. However, just like its
nearest competitors, it has been faced with stiff competitions from smaller, medium
size banks such as Capitec which has forced the bank to rethink its business model
and to offer innovative customer offerings to existing and potential customers.
NITEL: Mobile telephony One of Nigeria’s top 5 mobile operators and amongst the last entrants in the mobile 2 years
company in Nigeria telephony markets in Nigeria. This mobile operator is part of a larger multinational
group with interests in Africa and the Middle East.
NIBA: Banking institution in This is a top bank in Nigeria with more than 500 branches located in the main cities of 7 years
Nigeria Nigeria. The bank is headquartered in Lagos. Its vision is to be a reputable
international financial services institution that is recognized for innovation, superior
customer service and performance.
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As illustrated in table 4-4, the total respondents base was sub-divided into three
groups; namely:
NIBA 4 6 6 16
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4.3.2 Sample selection
The sample selected in this study enabled the researcher to draw conclusion
about the population at large. As part of the sample selection, the following
factors were considered:
2. The strategic location and economic status of Nigeria and South Africa. They
are sub-Saharan Africa’s economic powerhouses and are both located in two
separate sub-regions; namely West and Southern Africa respectively. This
provides the researcher with greater opportunities for comparative analyses
between the two regions. Moreover, as the most populous market in Africa with
close to 160 million inhabitants and the 6th largest market in the world (CIA,
2013), Nigeria is an attractive market for research; whilst South Africa’s diverse
ethnic and racial groups, its combined first and third world structures, together
with its peaceful transition from apartheid to a democratic country makes it a
unique case for Africa.
3. Blue chip companies with the history of implementing CRM programmes: The
companies that are included in the sample are major players in their own
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industries and countries with the record of having implemented CRM
programmes. In most instances they are either the leader or hold a second
position in their industries. Most of these companies are homegrown businesses
that have become multinational corporations which add to the uniqueness of
emerging markets. As purported by Sheth (2011, p. 167) “Marketers from the
emerging markets are now globally expanding, especially in other emerging
markets, such as Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and the middle east. They
are also becoming major global competitors in advanced markets through
acquisitions and organic growth”.
Other reasons for the specific selection of these cases included the researcher’s
prior experience in both the mobile and banking sectors and consequently her
large network in these industries and the chosen companies. The researcher’s
network made it easy for her to access data and also to secure interviews with
participants, particularly executive and senior management teams who have very
tight schedules.
It can be added that the initial research participant list was not exhaustive; but
through internal referrals, the researcher was able to refine her research
participant list by adding more names of team members across diverse business
functional areas that have played an active role in the implementation of the CRM
programme in the company. To ensure that relevant employees with CRM
implementation experience were included in the sample, at the end of each
interview, the researcher asked existing research participants if there were
anyone else in the organization that they knew of or have worked with who can
bring some additional insights into this study. This snowballing approach proved
to be successful; specially in instances where some project team members had
left the project and were replaced by new resources. It also helped the
researcher to confirm that she was speaking to the right individuals in the
organisation (in the instance where similar names were given by other
participants) and also pointed her into the right direction of interviewing those
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who could bring true insights based on their experiences of CRM implementation
in the organization. The final list was developed whilst already in the field.
From the very beginning stages of this case study research, the researcher had
aimed at conducting research that can provide convincing results. Having this in
mind, and also being aware of the criticisms that case study research has
received in the past years from its detractors (Rowley, 2002), the researcher
gave special considerations to the sample size for the research participants,
countries and industries. Consequently, when she was faced with the choice of
either one or two or more case studies, she went for a multiple case studies
research approach. Benbasat et al. (1987) have suggested that multiple case
designs are more suitable for descriptive research, theory building or testing.
Moreover, they also allow for cross case analysis and the extension of theory and
they generate lots of data. In support of this view, Yin (2009) asserts that the
evidence from multiple case studies is more compelling. Although it is believed
that any of the design (single case studies or multiple case studies) can lead to
successful case studies, he has suggested that multiple case studies tend to
carry more weight in the eyes of other scholars, the business and academic
communities as a whole as opposed to a single case study which is perceived as
weak. A few short comings related to case studies include time consumption and
high costs.
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C. Holistic versus embedded case studies
In this study, the researcher used a multiple, embedded case study design which
had as the main unit of analysis the CRM programme. The sub-units of analysis
included: Country of CRM implementation, Actors in the CRM programme and
the roles they fulfilled, the industry type and the company within the selected
industries.
Throughout this research, a key principle for data collection that was considered
included the use of multiple sources of evidence which allowed for triangulation
and strengthen the reliability and validity of the research results.
The fieldwork was conducted in two different African countries: South Africa (in
the city of Johannesburg) and Nigeria (in the city of Lagos), respectively. Data
were collected over a period of 2 to 12 months through face -to face and
telephonic interviews. 75% of the interviews were face-to-face and were
conducted at the respondent’s office in Johannesburg, South Africa and Lagos,
Nigeria whilst the balance of 25% was done telephonically or by self-completing
of the discussion guide. Data from three out of the four companies were collected
in three months.
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The interviewing process started off at the beginning of January 2012 in South
Africa. The researcher point of contact in the company differed from one
company to the other one and included the Head of CRM, Direct marketing, Call
centre, and Marketing. An introductory meeting was set up with these individuals
to brief them on the research, the targeted respondent profile and most
importantly to discuss the approach the researcher was to take, given the size of
the organization and the complexity of securing interviews, with the view to
maximize the research output. Then, an initial short list of potential respondents
including their contact details and departments was drawn by the researcher’s
contact person at the company, using the pre-defined respondent criteria as a
guide to select the most suitable respondents. These criteria included: (a) the
respondent’s experience of CRM in the company should be above a year, and (b)
his/her availability for an interview within a 2 to 4 weeks window period. Each of
the respondents was introduced to the researcher via email by a primary point of
contact that was pre-identified by the researcher. This was an ideal avenue for
interview date and time to be agreed upon. A total interview time of
approximately 2650 minutes was conducted. The average interview time
achieved was 40 minutes. The interviews were transcribed and generated just
rich data to develop themes and interpret the participants’ feedback.
After the SA interviews, there was a month recess where the researcher started
to look at the data collected and also ascertained any major learning as part of
the research process. The learning of the South African based research was
applied to the Nigeria case studies. During that recess period, the researcher
planned for the trip to Nigeria. Key tasks during this period included flight
arrangements, identification of potential research participants, scheduling of
interviews and introductory emails to all Nigerian-based participants and ongoing
liaison with potential research participants in Nigeria to ensure the smooth
planning of the interviews.
The researcher then flew to Nigeria for 2 weeks and completed an interview with
the mobile telephony operator in Nigeria. The second interview with the banking
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institution could not be done during that time but the discussion guide was
emailed to NIBA’s employees who took their time to provide detailed written
feedback on the questions posed.
Yin (2009) suggests that there are six commonly used sources of evidence for
case study research encompassing: Documents, archival data records,
interviews, direct observation, participant-observation and physical artifacts. In
this study, the data collection sources included: semi-structured interviews,
telephonic interviews, informal conversations and archival data such as project
documents, training manuals, newsletters, annual reports, websites, trade
journals and press releases. These secondary data helped in the triangulation
process to validate the research findings. Yin (2009, p. 115) has argued that “the
most important advantage presented by using multiple sources of evidence is the
development of converging lines of enquiry, a process of triangulation and
corroboration” that assists in producing convincing results.
Table 4-5 summarizes the sources of data, the procedure for data collection and
the key themes covered during the data collection process.
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Table 4-5: Data Sources and Application to the Study
1. Primary data Data collection procedure Examples of research questions Application to the case study
1.1 Qualitative Face to face discussion with respondents How is CRM defined in your organisation Chapter 5
Interviewing from NITEL, SATEL and SABA in their Why did you implement CRM?
Semi-structured respective locations: How did you go about implementing CRM? Chapter 6
interviews How do you rate your CRM implementation
Nigeria programme? And why?
Chapter 7
South Africa What critical factors (organisational, institutional, etc) Chapter 8
impeded on or enhanced your CRM success/failure?
What are the peculiarities of the market/environment
Self-completed questionnaires by NIBA
in which you operate that may have affected your
research participants
CRM programme?
2. Secondary data Data collection procedure Examples of themes covered Application to the case study
2.1 Internal Collect internal secondary data from the As is CRM programme Chapter 3
secondary data business intelligence, human resources CRM roadmap
and marketing departments. These Performance areas- including financial and non- Chapter 5
included project documents, annual financial metrics
Chapter 6
reports, company press releases, and Organisation culture, leadership and talent
informal discussion Company position, its brand and its vision Chapter 7
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4.4.3 Research instrument and protocol
As stated earlier, the data sources used in this study consisted of both primary
and secondary. The research instruments consisted of a discussion guide and
recording materials. The discussion guide was piloted prior to the start of the
fieldwork. The interviews with the research participants across all countries were
held in English (See appendix A for discussion guide). Because of the
exploratory nature of the research most of the questions were open-ended. The
researcher opted for a funnel approach in her questions by first asking broad
question and then bringing the conversation down to specific areas of CRM
implementation in the company. For instance, the first two questions asked were:
These broad questions also assisted the research participant to be more at ease
from the start of the discussion. Thereafter, the questions shifted specifically to
the CRM implementation program.
A design protocol, also referred to as “a road map” was used to enhance the
validity and reliability of the data (Enarson, Kennedy, & Miller, 2004, p. 1036). A
protocol is more than a research instrument. Besides the set of questions it
contains, it also has the procedures, the general rules applicable to the
instrument and clarifies the sources of information and who is responsible to
obtain this information (Voss et al., 2002). In a nutshell, a research protocol
provides a robust basis for the documentation of the evidence gathered during
the research. Consequently, it can serve as a prompt or checklist for the
fieldworker. The central point of a protocol is a set of questions asked during the
interview.
For this study, the research protocol includes six main sections consisting of: (a)
Abstract; (b) Study Description including sub-topics as study question, rationale,
objective, design and methods, project management and references, ; (c) Ethical
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consideration; (d) Significance of the study (or expected impact); (e) Budget and
(e) the Investigator’s role.
In general, the research protocol; was well adhered to by the researcher. Having
said this, the researcher found it difficult to obtain the signature of the consent
forms by all the research participants. Specifically, South African research
participants adhered to research protocols by signing off all documents that were
approved by the Wits University Ethics Committee namely, “The consent form for
participating in the interview” and “The consent form for the interview to be tape
recorded” as opposed to Nigerian respondents who flatly turned down the
opportunity to protect themselves by signing off these consent forms.
At first, research participants in Nigeria were very suspicious of engaging with the
researcher. Although they were reassured that the right processes have been
followed, and most importantly, that the information shared with the researcher
will be treated with utmost care and confidentiality, they declined to sign off the
consent forms.
(Yin, 2009, p. 126) notes that “data analysis consists of examining, categorising,
tabulating, testing or otherwise recombining evidence to draw empirically based
conclusions”. According to Easterby-Smith, Golden-Biddle, and Locke (2008),
qualitative data analysis include eight steps namely familiarisation, reflection,
data reduction, writing narratives of the changes, coding and conceptualisation,
sorting and cataloguing activities and outcomes, and re-evaluation.
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In this study, the data was collected from multiple sources including both primary
and secondary. The semi-structured interviews were digitally recorded,
transcribed, and then content analysed using both a contact summary form and a
qualitative software analysis package called MAXQDA analysis. Whilst MAXQDA
was used in this analysis on the basis of its robustness, there are many other
qualitative software packages available in the market. (Creswell, 2007) provides
an exhaustive list of programmes that can be used which include Atlas.ti, NVivo
and HyperESEARCH.
The researcher started off with her data analysis by firstly focusing on within case
analysis, an approach that is recommended by (Miles & Huberman, 1994). They
suggest that within case analysis should always precede cross-case analysis.
Then, the cross case analysis followed and it allowed for the investigation of
similarities and differences between the cases. Lots of customer insights were
generated from the collected data. New propositions and a conceptual framework
were derived from these analyses. Table 4-6 exhibits the CRM construct
measurement properties that were applied.
Category Codes
Country South Africa, Nigeria
Strategist, Implementer, Strategist and Implementer
Roles/Actors
(SandI)
Industry Telecom, Banking
Companies SATEL, SABA, NITEL, NIBA
The estimated consolidated responses for each of the respondent groups and
different cases were used to ascertain the contingency factors for CRM success
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and failures. Moreover, micro-level analyses within each respondent were
performed to identify patterns or outliers.
As part of the analysis, recurring words were grouped under three main themes
of organizational, institutional, customer data factors. These factors that emerged
from the data analysis were then considered against those found in the literature
review and were such naming as: “consistent with-no adaptation is required”;
“consistent with the literature- adaption is required” or “inconsistent”. This
approach was applied to each of the cases individually first.
Although the literature provides extensive findings on the criteria that define
“quality” in scientific research, there is limited research focusing specifically on
the realism paradigm. Realism researchers have instead been using a
combination of criteria applied to positivist and constructivism researches (Healy
& Perry, 2000). By contrasting quality criteria in realism with other paradigms
such as positivism, critical theory and constructivism, Healy and Perry (2000)
have suggested six criteria for assessing quality for realism research, namely:
1. Ontological appropriateness: This refers to the reality of the researcher. Healy
and Berry believe that the distinction between the three worlds namely realism,
positivist and constructivism are important as the reality of the researcher in each
of these contexts is not the same.
2. Contingent validity: The realist does not view the world as a laboratory; but as
an open system which allows her to have multiple perceptions of the same
reality.
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5. Analytic generalization: Whereas positivism focuses on theory testing, realism
focuses on developing a theory.
6. Construct validity: It refers to how well information about the constructs in the
theory being built is measured in the research.
According to Yin (2009), an authority in case study research, the quality of a case
study design can be maximized if these four conditions are met:
construct validity,
internal validity,
external validity, and
reliability
The researcher has combined Healy and Perry (2000) and Yin (2009)’s quality
criteria with (Riege, 2003)’s techniques for evaluating validity and reliability in a
table that illustrates how quality was approached in her research along the
following six dimensions of ontological appropriateness, epistemology, construct
validity, internal validity, external validity and reliability. An illustration of how
these conditions were met in this research is in table 4-7.
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Criteria Brief description Research technique applied to Research stage Criteria
this research proposed by
Ontological appropriateness: This Research problem deals with Selection of the most relevant Planning and (Healy & Perry,
deals with the researcher’s complex social science phenomena research problem. Questions are design 2000)
reality involving reflective people “how” and “why”
Epistemology: This deals with Multiple perceptions of participants- Multiple interviews with participants Data collection (Healy & Perry,
how the researcher relates to its Neither value-free nor value-laden across different hierarchical levels 2000)
world rather value aware and functions of the company. Four
companies of which two were in
banking and two in mobile
telephony. Two countries located in
two different sub-regions.
Observation: participant
observation
Construct validity: Identifying correct operational As mentioned earlier, multiple Data collection (Riege, 2003;
measures for the concepts being sources of evidence were used to Riege & Nair,
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studied allow for triangulation Share 1997; Yin, 2009)
Internal validity: it is appropriate It seeks to establish a causal within case analysis and then cross Data analysis (Riege, 2003;
for causal and explanatory relationship whereby certain case pattern matching were Yin, 2009)
studies only and not descriptive conditions are believed to lead to undertaken
or exploratory studies other conditions
External validity It is about defining the domain to Replication logic was used Design (Riege, 2003;
which a study’s findings can be Yin, 2009)
Evidence was compared with
generalised
extant literature
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Reliability It demonstrates that the operations Case study protocol was developed Data collection (Riege, 2003;
of a study such as the data and refined Yin, 2009)
collection procedures can be
Observations and actions were
repeated with the same results
recorded
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Thus, to address the criticisms that qualitative research suffer from, data was
collected from both primary and secondary sources and then triangulated. Voss
et al. (2002) suggest that triangulation through the use of various data collection
methods can strengthen the validity of data. Theory triangulation was also
achieved by using multiple theories to interpret the data; namely the institutional
theory and Hofstede’s fifth value dimension of national culture, short and long
term-orientation. The generalisability of qualitative research findings is a
weakness of this research method. However, the depth of what was being
investigated as well as the size of the sample, the multiple countries and industry
focus of this study, the researcher did not just generate lots of insights and
extensive data but she was also able to address the shortcomings associated
with case study research.
Having presented the research methodology in this chapter, the focus will now be
on the results of the analysis as covered in chapters 5 and 6.
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CHAPTER 5: CASE STUDY RESULTS
5.1 Introduction
The last section of this chapter, section 5.4, summarises the research findings
and presents the key insights drawn from the mobile and banking industries
within South Africa.
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company’s tighter profit margins and a shrinking market share, mainly due to
competitive pressures and heightened customer expectations, have elevated
SATEL’s agenda on improved and sustained relationship with its customers in a
market that has reached mobile phone saturation. This study on SATEL’s CRM
implementation programme reveals that whilst it may have added some value to
the organization, the value has been difficult to measure as noted by one the
research participants:
CRM has added value; but the value is slow to emerge as to what was anticipated. This is due to
(IT and adoption rate of new data) maturity and data issues.
From the above, it is apparent that the realization of the CRM programme’s full
benefits remains a concern at SATEL. These concerns are also well
encapsulated in the comments made by this middle level Manager:
There is an inability from the CRM team to get down into the detail of CRM implementation…to
understand how customer touch points operate in order to design an appropriate CRM strategy
and implement it. I am not confident that anything tangible would come out of this current CRM
process.
We have one of the best CRM systems…The Siebel system. We haven’t made a successful
transition to the CRM system as of yet. Currently, many of the legacy systems, when I say legacy,
it would be the custom systems that have been developed, are still in use. And it will take months
to years to change all of our content environment, our online services, all of that needs to be
transitioned to the CRM system. It does take a very long time. In no way can we be classified in
having a successful implementation that is being used across the board.
These research participants’ views justify the overall “average” rating that was
assigned to the CRM implementation programme initiated by SATEL. They also
provided invaluable feedback that enabled a thorough understanding of how
SATEL when about implementing its CRM programme, identifying its measures,
achieving its outcomes as well as linking these outcomes to specific causal
factors. Figure 5-1 provides a snapshot of the “As is” CRM implementation at
SATEL.
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Figure 5-1: “As is” CRM Implementation at SATEL
CRM Practices
1 There is a CRM road map in place
The company has the best breed of the CRM technology i.e
Siebel systems
CRM is led from the segment models which has not been
updated since its launch
Measures Implications/Interpretation
2
Company has 58 dimensions across marketing, finance
and other areas.
Overall aim is to increase ARPU, reduce capital
expenditure, decrease customer complaints Whilst SATEL does have the building blocks
Measures are not always used of a successful CRM programme in place, its
Outcomes challenges lie in the operationalisation of its
3 Programme. This justifies the average rating it
Difficult to see the tangible contribution as the total obtained from the research participants with
business performance can’t be linked to the CRM regard to the successful implementation of its
programme CRM programme.
Causal factors
4
The causal factors are linked to:
Organisational,
Institutional, and
Customer data factors
Figure 5-1 illustrates that there is a CRM roadmap at SATEL which has been
internalized by the business. However, this internalization process was not
achieved overnight. SATEL’s CRM programme is driven by the Head of Sales
with multiple responsibilities across other functions. This clearly speaks to the
misalignment between the CRM structure and the CRM vision as the Head of
SATEL is only interested in the next quarter’s sales figures. Moreover, this
current situation assessment of CRM implementation at SATEL reveals that:
A segmentation model is used to run campaigns; but the model has not been
updated for a few years.
The outcomes of campaigns are not consistently measured, and findings are
not always fedback into the campaign management process. Marketing
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campaigns are executed in silos leading various departments to speak over-
communicate with specific customers. This creates some agitation on the
customer’s side.
The individuals who designed the segmentation model do not have an
understanding of what segmentation means.
There are multiple definitions of CRM and other marketing concepts in the
organization. These have hampered the definition of business rules, and have
had an impact on the business and technical specifications of the software
tool required by SATEL. In a way, the lack of common understanding of
marketing related terms have to some extent affected the successful delivery
of the program and the acquisition and retention of the types of talent required
by the company to deliver on its CRM mandate.
IT integration capabilities are limited.
Customer data is not properly maintained, integrated and managed.
There is a lack of a centre of excellence in the company. As a consequence,
project prioritisation and executive’s participation in CRM has become a
daunting task. The downside of this situation is that further delays on
programme delivery are experienced since not all relevant internal
stakeholders are always readily available to sign-off deliverables.
As part of this internal assessment, identified measures and reporting tools were
also considered. Theoretically, there are 58 dimensions that cut across
marketing, finance, branches/stores. CMAT measures have been included in
individual employees KPIs. It was also found that CRM measures are not always
a prerequisite for a campaign to be launched. Some of the reporting tools that
can be found in SATEL include: cubes, spreadsheet and dashboards.
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are discussed under these dimensions of organisational, institutional, and
customer data factors.
Since the purpose of this research is to investigate the contingency factors for
successful CRM implementation at SATEL, a detailed analysis of the
organizational, customer data as well as institutional factors that have impacted
on CRM implementation at SATEL is provided below.
A. Organisational Factors
As depicted in table 5-1, eight out of the ten related organizational factors were
found to have impacted on the effectiveness of SATEL’s CRM programme. They
include Vision and strategy, enterprise-wide CRM, CRM measures, operating
structure, channel mix, customer processes, training and recruitment practices,
and adequate technology.
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Table 5-1: Organisational Factors With Impact on SATEL’s CRM
Programme
Organisational factors
Enterprise There is tacit executive buy-in. “The enterprise wide system would have been a better approach.
wide CRM However, if you look at how to put an enterprise system into a
There is a Siloed/departmental/functional approach. company like this, you also need to balance that off versus the
time to go to market, the time when we can rule something out. If
The change from technical, sales view to business, you design for the enterprise, your design might take five years
enterprise wide is still not fully executed. It has been and to implement that, another year. Whereas if you have smaller
a difficult journey from that angle. portions of project you could get them going on the system as
long as you’ve got your enterprise view in mind, which is
A process framework is required. challenging. It is challenging. So we’re doing the best with what
we have.”
“Because of the cost of the project and the wide impact of the
project, you need executive buy-in”
Operating The current operating structure is still based on the “We must relook at the structure of our business. We can’t
structure past model which was sales focused. implement CRM using our current sales structure”
The operating structure is not aligned with the CRM “CRM owner heads up sales and do not have much say on other
vision. issues impacting on the customer. He is driven by sales and not
service”
The job, roles and responsibilities of employees
have not been redefined to support the CRM vision.
Channel mix 33 different customer touch points were identified at “The informal channel follows the people”
SATEL (Including social media, websites, stores,
ICASA, hellopeter.com, email correspondences and “We had to be innovative to reach our informal channels in
more). remote, rural areas. The partnership with GMG is working for us.
We provide employment to Zoners and they have targets to
Multi-channel integration is critical in the execution reach”
of marketing campaigns at SATEL. Informal
channels are always included in the channel mix “We are reaching out to people to give them a job and also
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strategy. reaching out to them to give us customers” that was big “A little
while back, an assumption we made was that prepaid based
Informal channels help to reach a wide, prepaid customers aren’t online and they are. They might not to be online
customer base in remote areas. via a PC; they’re online by the phone. They are all on social
networking sites.”
Mobility is required to reach people living in remote,
impoverished communities. “There are 2 500 zoners who are brand ambassadors for SATEL.
They are contributing about 25% to our monthly sales.”
These customers are not found inside the shopping
malls; but at specific points such as Taxi ranks,
robots, shebbeens, or remote areas.
Programme The CRM programme goalposts keep on shifting. “In Africa, it is an accepted habit for projects to over-run. Whereas
management elsewhere, in the western world, there is strict governance. They
There is no governance, penalties when project focus on 80% detailed planning to mitigate against challenges
over-run. that will happen on the project. (Here), we do not do detailed
planning.”
There is a lack of detailed planning.
“SA do not have the planning mode…we have the tendency of
doing things in the last minute.”
Change Initially, change management was difficult to “Change management is critical, specially for customer facing
management implement. People were apprehensive particularly employees.”
because of the high failure rate of past projects at
(including SATEL. “Technology vendors take African businesses for a ride.
Internal and Technology partners must understand and give us what we need.
external People are questioning the objective of the project In advanced market, it is not just about selling software; but
stakeholder after the project analysis phase. rather proper support is offered. Technology vendors are not
engagement) accountable. They are driven by Sales and not value-add to the
Technology partners did not fully engage with business… Lack of support from technology vendors. For
SATEL which led to a limited understanding of what instance, Oracle in SA does not have Technology Labs whereas
SATEL’s needs are. they have them in Europe, America, etc. By the time there is a
client engagement, they come with an understanding of the
problem.”
Customer Customer processes are defined with limited input “We can optimize processes up to a certain point. Then you need
processes from the business people. the systems enable to go the extra steps. I need end to end
customer data at the touch points. Currently, we do not have that”
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CRM The CRM success/failure has not been closely “Outcomes of CRM programme must be measured”
measures monitored
“Customer satisfaction survey is not the only measure. The
The CRM measures focus on: Channel profitability, organization needs customer commitment measures such as the
customer profitability, and customer lifetime focus Net Promoter Score (NPS), employee satisfaction score and
and there are 58 dimensions for each of the customer centric measures”
measures.
Training and The scope of CRM training is limited. “There is limited skills for the scope of work to be done”
recruitment
practices Customer service or service quality training has not “We currently do not have the skills. The people who have been
been accentuated. hired had a “selling” mindset and are not service-driven”
Service orientation should be everybody’s job in the “The people dimension is fundamental in the CRM scenario. You
organization, not just marketing, CRM or customer will have a customer centric organization if you have employees
experience teams. Thus, it should be embodied in who are committed to customer centricity”
the company’s training and recruitment practices
(i.e. hire those individual who have demonstrated “We do not know what CRM is about. Without the knowledge of
those competencies in their current or past jobs CRM, we can’t define the skills needed”
Adequate There are lots of legacy systems, of which most of “We like to be at the leading edge of technology…The Siebel
technology them are custom made application. system that we are implementing is the best of the breed”.
Business Analysts bring requirements that do not fit “We do not match the requirements with the systems. There are
the systems. They are systems agnostic big moves now to get the existing BAs trained on Siebel…they
need to have knowledge of the system itself when they go to a
Value of the Siebel system to the business is slow to requirement gathering session.”
emerge.
Another factor that was covered by the research participants during the fieldwork
is Institution. Using DiMaggio and Powell (1983)’s isomorphism concepts, it was
assessed how SATEL became isomorphic to its normative environment when
implementing its CRM programmes. Coercive, mimetic and normative
isomorphisms were considered during the data analysis. Moreover, Hofstede’s
“confucian dynamism” was applied specially when focusing on the normative
environment at SATEL.
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B. Institutional Factors
The research results show that regulations and socio-cultural and political
environmental factors impacted on the effectiveness of CRM implementation at
SATEL.
In contrast, competitors’ activities did not affect SATEL’s CRM programme as the
company has always embraced the philosophy of being a leader in its market
and not a follower. With this in mind, SATEL would not mimic its competitors or
any other players in the South African market. As a matter of fact, SATEL has
always aimed at developing and implementing a CRM programme that
contributes to the reinforcement of its vision of being the leading mobile
communications company in emerging markets. This is illustrated in the following
comments made by one of the senior research participants:
I would like to position us as a leader. I don’t believe anybody is doing a good job right now.
There are not many companies that are doing a good job in CRM in South Africa.
The detailed findings and verbatim quotes from research participants are
illustrated in table 5-2.
Institutional factors
Coercive motive- Research participants were almost unanimous on the “ (Our company) can afford to sell contract because
Regulations: fact that the laws that are passed protect both there are laws and regulations that assist you to get
Government laws customers and companies. your money back”
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ICASA has set target for complaint resolutions by are resolved within a day”
mobile communications players in the markets. A
breach of this target results in penalties.
Mimetic motives- Company has a well established brand. Although there “Financially, we have increased our market share and
Competitors’ activities is churn, customers tend to be more loyal are doing better than our competitors”
However, recent activities from emerging players such “Fighting our nearest competitors on value pack is not
as Cell C and 8ta impacts on the bottom end of this the smartest strategy. We are not going to go that
market; most of which being prepaid. route. What we are going to offer is great value over
a period of time.”
SATEL has refrained from mimicking its competitors as
it believes that it is innovation, superb customer
experience that will drive customer to its brand and
ensure that its customers do not churn.
Normative motives- SA is a fairly stable political environment. “SA gained independence after most African
Socio-cultural and economies. Some African countries earned their
political environment Unemployment is high and the legacy of the apartheid independence before SA; but there is still political
has resulted in limited availability of certain types of instability. Because of the political stability, the SA
skills. economy has been growing. It is easier to sell a
handset in a country that is stable”
The Crime rate has not stabilized. The SA culture is
quite diverse culture
Although SATEL has large volumes of customer data acquired from diverse
sources, its main challenge still lies in how the richness and goodness of the data
can be better utilized for the attainment of its CRM’s goals.
“Because of historical reasons such as siloed mentality, SATEL has had a low rate of data
adoption.”
“Only those companies with the best understanding of customers will succeed. Thus, ongoing
investment in data is critical.”
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Table 5-3: Customer Data Factors With Impact on SATEL’s CRM
Programme
Data There is a vast quantity of customer data in “Our current problem is not the availability of data but rather what we do
volumes the organization. These data are collected with the data we have”
from various sources such as contact centres,
web, social media, feedback in the branches, “A few years ago, our systems were not automated. Everything was done
zoners in townships/remote communities and manually”
retail partners. The data collected is
appended with additional data from customer “The feedback we receive from our informal channels, zoners has been
survey and also secondary sources such as invaluable”
research companies and industry reports.
Data quality Data quality at SATEL has not been “We have good data particularly from our post paid customers. The quality
(recency and mentioned as an issue. It appears that the of our data has been a key ingredient in the success of our loyalty
richness of quality of the data is good and most programme”
the importantly that the data base has lots of
database) customer details.
Data Although there is disparate information that is “Even though SATEL currently has many Legacy systems, we also have
storage, available on different company systems, there systems that tie this together. So we have for example, EDW, enterprise
security and is a system that ties all the data together. data warehouse. It will collect data from multiple systems. That data can
mining then be analyzed. So, even though you don’t have a single CRM that
capabilities The company is in the process of developing gives you that picture, you have otherwise the means to get this. We’re
the capabilities for real time marketing and not flying blind at the moment, we’re doing that analysis, but we’re doing it
campaign management. with other tools”
The data is made available to only those ‘The Siebel system works with what we call organizations so the data is
users that are allowed to view/use the data actually on one database. But the visibility is controlled according to the
organizations. So I’ve got an organization that has divisions. In those
divisions we have positions and we have employees linked to those
positions. The data is supported by organization’s structure. So I will have
one database full of all of my subscriptions but not everybody will have
access to everything. They will only see the portion of data that they are
allowed to see.”
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5.3 Results From CRM Implementation at SABA
Based on the size of its market capitalization, SABA has been rated as one of the
top four banks in South Africa. The company has had the history of not being
agile and also of being perceived as an old fashioned institution that is reluctant
to embrace the type of change that is so much needed across all its business
aspects of people, processes and technology and systems. A total transformation
at SABA was required in order to ensure that it remains competitive. This
became a pressing issue since there have been an increasing number of smaller
banks and even of SABA’s direct competitors that became more innovative and
agile. These competitors are realizing tangible benefits from their CRM initiatives;
including increased customer awareness of their products, improved market
share, reduced attrition rates and most importantly high customer retention.
“The defining moment came (…) when we ranked fourth from a service perspective, from all the
four big banks. Also immediately after being ranked fourth, we went into the credit crunch time
and we realized (that) without our customers we're not going to make the money we want to
make.”
In light of these competitive, industry and internal pressures that started to affect
its margins, SABA embarked upon a CRM journey in early 2000 with the view to
attract and retain its customers; and most importantly to rally the business around
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its vision of customer centricity. Almost ten years down the line, based on the
results of this study, the business acknowledges that the CRM programme has
failed dismally and as a consequence, the programme received a “below
average” rating by the research participants. One of the research participants
who had been working on the programme since inception and has had multiple
roles along the way was overt about the limitations of the CRM programme at
SATEL:
“The CRM journey is R7 billion over budget. It is hopelessly behind target. It has not managed to
engage all the business units. So there are still people looking at it who say this is not what we
want.”
“The analytics have not been integrated in a meaningful way. The CRM system is almost a
Such a low rating was observed amongst those respondents who were classified
as implementers, and also those who fulfilled both roles of strategists and
implementers. Furthermore, middle-level managers shared these opinions as
illustrated below:
“In the low income market, I have challenges with the contactability of my customer. It is great
that we have these (CRM) models and how do I realize them in my environment?”
“We have burnt money on a lot of consultants, on technical skills to get (SAP) implementation to
work…The technical forces that are driving SAP are strong and are demanding more from the
business. When will the business say no? The level of business leadership is not strong (…) SAP
is laughing all the way to the bank when they can’t deliver.”
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On the other hand, some research participants have indicated that for the past
two years, there has been a pocket of success that has mainly been driven by
the Advanced Analytics and Modeling team at SABA. This team has done some
brilliant work around the individualization of the bank’s offering to its customers
but the maturity of SABA has not always allowed this Analytics team to roll out
the work that they have tested to the entire SABA database. As one of the
respondents noted:
“The (Advanced Analytics and Modeling team) is very clear on CRM. They have the capabilities
and the business can take these capabilities to another level…but that has not happened yet.”
This view is supported by one of the research participants who also highlights the
extreme importance of addressing data management issues if the company
wants to be truly CRM focused.
“The CRM capabilities run only on a subset of customers. (SABA) has data management issues.
Up until these issues are resolved I do not think we can see the ultimate impact of CRM: the
single view of customer”.
Figure 5-2 provides a snapshot of the “As is” CRM implementation at SABA.
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Figure 5-2: “As is” CRM implementation at SABA
CRM Practices
1 There is a target operating model
SAP is in the process of implementation
CRM is driven by the technical team and not the business
Systems are fragmented
Leads that are generated are not used in the company
Segments based approach to marketing
Measures Implications/Interpretation
2
Brand Measures are defined such as profit to be realised,
products sold, average revenue per customer
SABA crm implementation started off at a late
stage of the company lifecycle which has made
its implementation quite challenging in terms of
its system integrations, availability of internal
Outcomes CRM skills and other capabilities. The outcomes
3 of the CRM programme have not been
High CRM cost which has not translated into true business favourable. These can be attributed lack of
value customer data capabalities and leadership
issues. Competitive pressures have made the
company to realise that it has to be continually
innovate.
Causal factors
4
They can be categorised into:
Organisational
Institutional
Customer data
The evaluation of current CRM practices at SABA shows that there is a target
operating model which provides a high level vision of CRM. CRM accountability
and responsibility is not clearly defined. This is exemplified by the concerns
raised by both the technology and business team members. Moreover, SABA
employees define CRM as a system, and not an enterprise wide strategy where
the system is used as an enabler. This can explain why the technology team at
SABA appears to be leading the CRM strategy as opposed to the business team.
Other practices include a lack of clearly defined business management
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processes. The direct marketing department drives most of the CRM campaigns
which are mainly either product or sales driven; and not customer-focuses.
SABA has a nursery strategy for onboarding new customers. Whilst this strategy
has successfully been implemented in the company amongst new customers; it
could be more effective if the business units were to be more integrated.
This evaluation of the “As is situation” also CRM measures have not been clearly
defined and as a result of this, they are not linked to individual’s key performance
indicators. General measures related to number of customers acquired, profit
generated by branches, are being tracked by SABA. Reporting tools include
cubes, spreadsheet and dashboards.
The CRM pilot conducted by the Analytics and data modeling team has been
successful. However, Customer service is still an issue.
A. Organisational factors
Six out of the ten related organizational factors were identified by research
participants as having had a greater effect on SABA’s CRM programme. These
six factors include vision and strategy, operating structure, channel mix,
programme management, customer processes and adequate technology.
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Table 5-4: Organisational Factors With Impact on SABA’s CRM Programme
Organisational factors
Vision and strategy SABA has embarked on a transformation “So I think if you go back to a few years ago when the
programme with the aim to get the organisation to business architecture team did a survey amongst the
focus on its customers. executive level to ascertain what do they understand
about what the bank wanted to achieve from this
Over time, a target operating model was designed. whole core banking project and the CRM, the
It encapsulates the CRM journey and the percentage of people who understood what we
capabilities for achieving the journey. wanted to achieve was terrible at that level. I think
there were about 12 out of 35.”
However, there are stark challenges; namely weak
business leadership, legacy systems and “Leadership designs the way forward and they give
misalignment amongst executives on what the you what their vision is and we follow the path.
CRM programme aims to achieve. Usually that’s what we do. So if that vision wasn’t
right, then we made some bad decisions along the
way. I think we have. I mean we definitely made
some hiccups here and there but I think ultimately we
have never compromised the customer.”
Enterprise wide CRM There is a limited CRM sponsorship as the focus is “There is limited leadership in the CRM space”
still on a product and sales centric modes.
“ There have been many releases and we are now in
CRM has been implemented as part of a large the BR6 phase”
ERP system, on a piece meal basis starting off
with such modules as SAP HR.
Operating structure There is an operating model in place. However, “You’re dealing with a massive organization…in a
the roles, responsibilities and structure of the predominately upper echelon environment like retail
business do not support the customer-centric banking, it’s much operationalized and you’re going to
philosophy embedded in the company vision need structures and controls”.
statement
Channel mix The business is still ascertaining what is the best ‘The low income groups…that is where you build your
way to optimize its informal channels mainly used bank of tomorrow, if we’re not going to record their
by its inclusive banking customers. voices (i.e. interactions, requests, queries, etc), then
certainly from an emerging market point of view,
Some digital marketing campaigns have been we’re not listening to our customers.”
executed and the success rate has been high.
Programme CRM was a subcomponent of the enterprise “The whole management, the sizing, the whole
management resource planning; Which explains the various scoping of this project has been wrong from the start”
releases that have occurred.
“When we started off with SAP, it kind of was a
The program methodology was custom made and custom, specially made methodology for the project.
not understood by SABA project manager, analyst, The problem with that is your project managers don’t
etc. understand it. Your business analyst doesn’t
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There is not a standard programme management understand it…it was really customized specifically
methodology that is used and understood by all
for the program, which didn’t work out well because
no one knew what they were supposed to do”
Change management Change management has been weak to non- “Change has to be a constant in the
existent. There is not enough understanding organisation…you have to speak it all the time, This is
amongst the users on the benefits of CRM and not about losing your job. That’s not what change is
why/how it would be implemented, although a about.”
diverse range of internal media such as internal
television, newsletters, intranet and more have “Bluewave, an internal television program is used
been used as part of the change management extensively to communicate changes in the
program organisation.”
Customer processes Lead management processes are defined. Leads “I don’t think that more than ten people in the
are also generated but not used for customer company know that NBA dumps up to 70,000 leads a
acquisitions or retentions. day into our direct marketing databases, and aren't
used.”
All customer processes have not been
documented
CRM measures The research participants realize the importance of “The good service isn't the end in itself. So if your
defining how CRM success looks like. According to customer relationship – CRM system isn't reducing
them, it should include amongst other increase in your attrition, and increasing your sales, those are the
customer satisfaction, reduced customer key indicators. You can give me every customer
complaints, increase in upsell and cross sell satisfaction survey saying you're so wonderful and
everything else, if it’s not hitting your bottom line
However current measures have not been adopted through those two things…(then, it is not worth it).”
across the business.
Training and The training is developed and facilitated by the “I think what is absolutely essential is that you have
recruitment practices people lacking the technical skills. CRM education somebody with social science skills that can interpret the
is also required in the business data, understand the products, understand what needs to
be filled, somebody who understands the community, the
The set of skills identified as critical by the bank, and how the bank approaches the community
research participants include social science, data based on the data that’s fed through to (him/her).”
management, and advanced process analysis,
social science, advanced statistical skills. Because
of the staff turnover rate, these skills are not
always readily available in the organisation.
Adequate technology The legacy systems coupled with a lack of “We are building a new bank and the core banking
understanding of what CRM can do for the transformation is all about this. It’s using this new
business have made its implementation costly, software to build this new platform and this platform is
longer and overall ineffective. going to be looking at a way to manage our customer
relationships”
The selection process of the IT vendor was
primarily driven by the technology team with “ If I had to build a new bank, I will make CRM the only
limited involvement from the business team. thing”
Not every historical data about the customer based “We have a lot of SAP problems. The flow is not correct”
on its interactions with the company is captured
onto a single platform.
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Transitioning from the organizational factors to the institutional factors, it was
observed that out of the three institutional motives for CRM implementation at
SABA, mimetic motives greatly impacted on SABA’s CRM implementation.
B. Institutional Factors
The results show that coercive motives did not affect CRM implementation at
SABA. This can be explained by the fact that SABA views all laws and
regulations as part of good business practices. These principles are embedded
into SABA’s philosophy of doing business. Likewise, although the respondents
acknowledged that a stable political environment is always conducive to good
business, they did believe that CRM initiatives must be cognizant of the historical
background their communities. As a result of this, organizations that implement
CRM must incorporate a “societal flair” in their approach as commented by some
of research participants. This need is even greater if the organization wants to
attract low income and previously disadvantaged market segments.
Mimetic motives are institutional factors with the highest impact on CRM
implementation at SABA. Mimetic motives in the banking industry are one of the
drivers of CRM implementation at SABA. In this research study, SABA has
shown to be a follower particularly when it comes to the adoption of new social
media such as twitter and other media platforms as part of its CRM
implementation progamme. This mimetic approach to CRM had a positive impact
on SABA’s customer acquisition and retention efforts.
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Table 5-5 presents the findings on the institutional factors that may have
impacted on SABA’s CRM programme.
Institutional Factors
Regulatory The National Credit Act and Consumer Protect “All these laws are good because they encourage good
Act have affected how the company promotes its business practices.”
motives: customers. However the research participants
acknowledge that SABA runs with the “Our customers have become more vocal as they are more
Regulations:
understanding of not being in a position to annoy informed. Legislation has forced them to become more
Government the customer. informed and aware.”
laws/Industry SABA has to request customers’ consent before “CPA, so if you unsubscribe from all electronic
promoting its products to its customer base. communications then you’re off the database, and you don’t
regulations get to email.”
Mimetic motives: Direct competitors activities are monitored ‘Our competitors is the reason why our CEO when on
closely. Their external marketing activities have Twitter.”
Competitors’ forced SABA on how to engage with its
customers. “Our competitor (y) was the first one to go on twitter and
activities
everyone was just following him”
Competitors ‘activities have reduced SABA’s
market share. “The front end of our competitors is quite slick(…) but they
have other challenges too”
Retailers way of doing business such as long
store opening hours have now been adopted by
the company in some of its branches
Normatives: Socio- The political landscape together with languages “I think ...cultural diversity…our political background, that is
did not greatly affect how SABA engages with its important and it stills plays a huge factor today. I have to
cultural and current and potential customers have a bit of a community dynamic in my (CRM) approach. I
can't just come here and put out products. It's got to be
political
relevant. It's got to talk to the target market and it's got to
environment have a bit of societal flair.”
The third factor that was identified is concerned with customer data.
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C. Customer Data Factors
Customer data quality, data storage, security and data mining as well as SABA’s
ability to manage its large volumes of data have impacted on the effectiveness of
its CRM implementation programme.
Table 5-6: Customer Data Factors with Impact on SABA’s CRM Programme
Data quality There is voluminous, non uniform data which at “There’s too much data in the bank. It’s taking too long to
(recency and time prevents timely reporting and the move the data into our data warehouse. Like, some days our
richness of the generation of customer insights. Moreover, the batches fall over. So this doesn’t affect customers, but it
data) velocity of data has increased significantly and affects the people who do the reporting – in order to drive
data management has become complicated performance as well, you have to get the reporting ou.”t
due to data coming from multiple sources.
“The challenge is that 50% of our book is split between “yes”
This large customer database has not been and “no” to marketing.”
fully utilised due to regulatory restrictions. In
reality, the SABA database required for
marketing purposes has shrunk to half its size
due to legislation which requires customer
consent to campaigns.
Data storage and Quality of data is good for new data which “The delivery is high because they’re new clients, and this is
mining capabilities makes the delivery of information to customers an actual valid address that they gave a month ago.”
very high.
“The E billing for the bank is about 75 or 80 percent, which is
Information that gets undelivered either via good for the banking sector.”
electronic or print media is mainly due to poor
data capture. “We end up migrating two customers over four, where there’s
actually only one person. I mean, personally, I had about
There are lots of duplicated records in the seven or eight customer records – for me, for one person.
company database. And you have to sit with the guys. And then they have to
combine all of these into only one person. And we’ve got a lot
Customers are not flagged on the systems on
of that.”
the basis of their preferences on how they want
to be communicated to and for which products “It’s a big job to initiate (preference centres). To maintain, it
or services. takes a bit of work. But the actual technical kind of makeup is
not that hard. The banks implementing SAP at the moment,
huge, big SAP implementation where all custom preferences
are going to be held there as well.”
The formatting of data as well as its location is “I’d almost say your biggest challenge is migrating the data that
a challenge the company is faced with. you’ve got from all of these different old systems. We had so
many isolated systems that we used to do the different
The ability to mine data to generate new products on, the different customer files, the different sales
insights for the CRM programme is key. systems, different workflow systems, CRM systems. We had to
combine all of these systems and get integrated into this one-
step system, which, I think, was the most difficult thing. We’re
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still migrating data over. And we’re finding that there’s a lot of
data missing.”
Based on the above results, it can be concluded that data lies at the heart of a
successful CRM programme for SABA. Most of its CRM impediments beyond
organizational factors are undoubtedly linked to its inability to manage its
voluminous data, store such data and also to apply the required data mining skills
to create individualized customer offerings for its entire customer base.
Despite the fact that both SATEL and SABA operate in the same country, there
appears to be stark differences in their CRM practices.
First, SATEL CRM programme received a better rating than SABA’s. This may
largely be attributed to the dynamic changes taking place in the mobile telephony
sector which has forced this mobile service provider to be at the forefront of
innovation. This result is sound evidence that the industry maturity level plays a
role in determining the potential failure and success rate of CRM within
companies. Second, the mimetic motives for CRM implementation were not
supported at SATEL whilst at SABA’s the focus was on replicating what the
nearest competitor was doing in the market to attract customers. Third, a major
problem at SABA was the end-to-end management of its programme which was
not on par with the standard levels as there were large discrepancies amongst
the project team; namely misalignment of the adopted project management
methodologies, the programme is run by the technical team with limited
involvement from the business, just to name a few issues. Whereas at SATEL,
although the management of the CRM programme did not have the highest rating
out of the organizational factors that were identified, the CRM accountability
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rested with someone from the business side. Nevertheless, this resource had
more of a sales than a customer-centric view when making decisions.
Despite these differences there were similarities in CRM practices between these
two companies. They range from the level of support required to effectively
manage their CRM programs, to the issue of large volume of data as well as the
availability of marketing, analytical and sound programme management skills in
the company. In addition to this, both companies have found it necessary to
include the informal channels as part of their channel mixes.
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CHAPTER 6: CASE STUDY RESULTS
6.1 Introduction
Similar to Chapter 5, this chapter presents the results from within case analyses
of CRM implementation in the banking and mobile telephony sectors, having as a
main differentiator the country of analysis, Nigeria. The unit of analysis remains
the CRM programme. In sections 6.2 and 6.3, an overview of the “As is” CRM
implementation situation is described by concentrating on each company’s
current CRM practices, identified CRM measures, outcomes of CRM
implementation and causal factors of such outcomes. Then, detailed research
findings, along the three dimensions of organizational, customer data and
institutional factors as well as the verbatim quotes from research participants are
presented.
In the last section of this chapter, section 6.4, a summary of the research findings
are presented as well as key insights drawn from the mobile and banking
industries within Nigeria.
As one of the late entrants and smallest players in the Nigerian mobile
telecommunications industry, NITEL was initially faced with what was perceived
as insurmountable challenges when it first entered the Nigerian market in
October 2008. These challenges included amongst others, stiff competition from
existing players with strong brand equity and robust financial muscles, negative
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perceptions associated with NITEL’s mother brand in international markets,
unstable operating environment with specific reference to the political unrests in
the northern part of Nigeria as well as the notoriously high cost of doing business
in Nigeria. These high costs are mainly related to indirect business costs such as
the need to purchase generators and diesel in order to curve the power outages.
These power outages have become an accepted norm in Nigeria and thus any
player that wants to capture a sizeable part of this market has to incur the
necessary costs in order to continue with the provision of its services to the
targeted customers. Otherwise, these will negatively impact on the company’s
ability to deliver its mobile and communications services to its customers. One of
the research participants identified these costs as inhibitors to businesses in
Nigeria:
“Have you noticed that there is a lot of power outages in Nigeria?...Now if power goes off, there’s
service distribution (issues) for the area. So what do we do? We put two generators per base
station. We fuel it with diesel. Basically, the cost of providing this service goes up, which also
reflects in what the subscribers are paying. Beyond the cost, it takes a while for it (the service) to
be fixed. So these are the things that are really inhibiting operators from getting to customers.”
Power is the main problem in (this) industry. If we can have 50% more power than (what) we
have right now, I think our problems will be half solved in the industry. The amount of money that
we spend in the month I heard is a figure of 8 billion naira for the whole industry is quite a lot of
money. It’s huge!
“Your customers are not transactions. They are not numbers. Your customers are human beings
who have emotions and who behave in certain ways based on their emotions. So if you can find
out what is value for them, what their emotions are, if you can manage this, you’ll have more loyal
customers.”
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It is this vision of emotionally connecting with customers in order to achieve
customer delight and deliver superb customer experience across all the touch
points that led to the birth of NITEL’s customer centricity program.
NITEL embarked upon the implementation of its CRM programme just 2 years
after establishing its presence in the Nigerian market. Given its relatively new
position in the Nigerian market when it launched its CRM programme, the
company had to ensure that through its CRM programme it could position itself
as an innovator. Consequently, driving innovation across its products and service
offerings was the clear path towards sustainable customer acquisition and
retention; and ultimately, for increased market share for NITEL. Research
participants lauded the types of innovation NITEL was able to implement:
“When we came, we gave people things that they had never heard of before. Things like home-
zone. For example: if you identify your office as your home-zone, any calls you will be making
from that place will be the cheapest.”
“The only way we can expand is keep on innovating. That’s one thing NITEL is known for. For
instance, we came with the idea of updating your facebook status from « N-cell phone »”
“(Our) strategy has been to be number one in innovation, because innovation will get you ahead
of every other player in the market.”
Beyond innovation, the success of NITEL’s CRM programme has been attributed
to its strong leadership team. For example, one of the research participants noted
that:
"The success story of our currently growing customer centricity program is based on the buy-in of
our CEO. He understands customer issues. He owns the (programme). He gives this
(programme) financial support. He gives it every necessary support. He encourages the
consultants and everyone. He understands what customer centricity is about"
This view was echoed by other research participants. They acknowledged that
NITEL’s CRM programme has received lots of support from their CEO and other
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departmental heads. There is a clearly defined level of accountability between
such departments as customer care and customer experience at NITEL.
Everybody in the company understands the vision and works with the objective to
realize this vision.
“Our growth rate has almost tripled since we implemented our customer centricity program”
“80% of customer related issues that are escalated (to the contact centre) get resolved
immediately”.
In reality, NITEL exponentially increased its customer base from six million in
2010 to over 14.3 million at the end of September 2012. It has now set up a
target of reaching 20 million customers at the end of the year 2013 ("(NITEL) to
invest USD400m in 2013, targets 20m subs," 2012). Additional achievements are
in the areas of total increase in sales and overall profit margins generated. In less
than four years, NITEL acquired 13 per cent of Nigeria’s mobile
telecommunications market share and reported net revenue of $8.4 billion as at
the end of March 2012 ("(NITEL) Nigeria sets new four year target," 2012).
The success of NITEL’s CRM programme was also acknowledged in the industry
when it received in November 2012 two awards from the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC), the official regulator of the ICT industry in
Nigeria. The awards were for Excellent Service and Effective collaboration with
the Consumer Bureau Service. It is understood from these awards that NITEL
has consistently exceeded the targets set by the industry regulator in terms of
number of call attempts made by the consumer to its contact centre and
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maximum ring before a connection is made to its Interactive Voice Response
(IVR), which were far below the target of “5 times”. Another measure used by the
regulator to monitor the quality of the service offered by the mobile service
providers is the queuing time. On this front, NITEL performed well against the
target of “no more than 5 minutes” for queuing time ("(NITEL) wins award for
excellent service and customer care," 2012).
With these upbeat results, the research participants were unanimous that the
CRM programme at NITEL exceeded anticipated targets. This explains the
overall “good” rating that they attributed to the effectiveness of their CRM
programme. Figure 6-1 provides a snapshot view of the “As is” CRM
implementation at NITEL, including CRM practices at NITEL as well as identified
CRM measures, outcomes and causal factors of these outcomes
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Figure 6-1: “As is” CRM Implementation at NITEL
CRM Practices
1 Total buy-in from the CEO who understands CRM and has
invested the time and other financial resources in the
programme
Innovation across all products and services offerings
Customer insights drive decision-making at NITEL.. This
reinforces its customer-centric positioning
Measures Implications/Interpretation
2
Number of customers acquired
Net profit generated
Although a late entrant in the Nigerian Mobile
First call resolution
telephony industry, NITEL’s customer
Average call handling time
centricity programme has been rated as good.
Queuing time
The effectiveness of its programme can be
seen in the outcomes achieved; namely
Outcomes improved market share, profit and increase in
3 Improved customer service the number of new customers. These positive
Increased market share to 13% results have made the leadership bullish about
Acquired over 7 million new customers within 2 years 2013. They have set a target of having a
Product innovation: e.g easywallet, home zone, easy start customer base of 20 million by the end of
and easy click- just to name a few. 2013.
Improved average call handling time
Queuing time has been reduced to less than 5 minutes
Causal factors
4
Organisational
Institutional
Customer data
The CRM current situational analysis at NITEL reveals that NITEL has a clearly
defined customer centricity program that is fully supported by its leadership team.
This leadership team has created an internal culture of customer centricity and
innovation and has rallied every employee behind the CRM vision. Moreover, the
roles and responsibilities of each employee and department are clear and are
linked to the company key performance indicators. In its interactions with its
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customers, NITEL uses the languages understood by Nigerian in its
communications with its target market (e.g. Pidgin English). CRM at NITEL is
based on customer insights. Its market segments include: Prestige, Mass and
Youth Segments. For its Youth segment, it has implemented effective strategies
that have helped it capture this important segment of the market which represent
60% of the Nigerian population.
The outcomes of NITEL’s CRM initiatives have been satisfactory. For example,
NITEL improved its market share to 13 percent at the end of September 2012. It
acquired an additional 7 million customers within two years (as at the end of
September 2012). NITEL has exceeded the measures set up by the Nigerian
Communications Commission. It also received several customer service awards
from the ICT regulator, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC). Its
sales generated and profit margins achieved have increase since the roll-out of
its customer centricity program. The main causal factors behind this success are
discussed in the next section.
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6.2.2 Presenting CRM results from NITEL under the three dimensions of
organizational, institutional and customer data factors
A. Organisational Factors
According to the feedback received from the research participants, there are six
organizational factors that greatly impacted on NITEL’s CRM programme
effectiveness namely: Vision and Strategy, CRM measures, Change
management, training and recruitment practices, the operating structure,
technology and systems, and the channel mix.
Organisational factors
Vision and The customer centricity program at NITEL aims to deliver a “Our core focus is the customer. Everything we do is
strategy superb customer experience. The programme is customer centric. We are not chasing numbers like
championed by the CEO who has also rallied all his team others. We are in the business of giving service of
members behind the vision of NITEL being a customer quality. We know we’ll get paid back.”
centric company.
“The success story of our currently growing
The CEO walks the talk and provides all the necessary customer centricity program is based on the buy-in
support that assist in the realization of the CRM vision. of our CEO. He understands customer issues. He
owns the (programme). He gives this (programme)
financial support. He gives it every necessary
support. He encourages the consultants and
everyone. He understands what customer centricity
is about.”
Enterprise wide The various departments ranging from customer insights, “Everybody knows about this customer centric
CRM business intelligence, marketing, channels, finance and philosophy.”
contact centre work hand in hand in developing and
implementing customer centric solutions. “Any company that can delight the customers they
have, will be in business for as long as they can
The customer centricity program has been communicated sustain the interest of the customer. The upside is
to and bought into by all. clear once you have happy, loyal customers.
Customer centricity is key.”
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Operating The CRM organization has at its top level the CEO who is “Our CEO, along with the Head of Customer Care
structure supported by the Head of customer care and customer and Experience drive our CRM program.”
experience. Each of these departments understands their
functions and what is required to deliver on their mandates.
Channel mix NITEL has used a combination of above, below and “We apply the right marketing mix: TV commercials,
channels through the line channels to reach its customer base. outdoor media, etc.”
Programme Due to the size of the business, the customer centricity “The best time to launch the customer centricity
management program has been integrated into the business and is program is at the early stage of the company life
spearheaded by the CEO who is also ultimately cycle.”
responsible for the successfully delivery of the program.
Change The change management journey at NITEL was not “Culture of the organization has to support the
management arduous primarily due to the fact that NITEL was new in the customer centric program.”
market and customer centricity was embodied in the
company philosophy. So, employees at NITEL saw CRM
not as a new initiative but rather a way of the company
fulfilling its mission.
Customer Customer-centric processes and sub-processes have been “We have key processes that are monitored to
processes defined, designed and documented. These processes are ensure that they are fit for purpose. And then we
categorized into four: have processes that support those processes.”
Network resilience
CRM measures NITEL has a set of measures in place. Some of these “The key KPIs that we measure, on a regular basis,
measures are aligned with the NCC requirements. These is the margin. We ensure that our margin doesn’t go
measures range from: customer service to sales and new beyond what we can’t sustain.”
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product development. “Another impact is the customer positive feedback
that we get, words of mouth recommendations.
It also uses the customer satisfaction index to monitor its They compare us with seniors that have been in the
customer satisfaction level. market for a longer time. Our brand has
strengthened. Where we stand in the mind of the
customer has been our major win.”
Training and NITEL has hired local people with the understanding of the “We recruit as much local content as we could to
recruitment Nigerian consumers. Also, quite a significant number of ensure that there is a lot of buying into the business”
practices those who hold middle management positions had held
positions in the ICT industry. They bring in not just the “Basically what we do is running (training) initiative
knowledge of the local environment; but also that of the on improving (service) quality and processes.”
industry.
“All our specialists are cross-functional. You liase
The core skills that helped deliver on the company’s vision with every part of the business. You need to have a
was a service culture that was embodied in everything that cross-functional mindset. You need to understand
was done in the company. Moreover, cross-functional skills systems, product and services, have CRM
were also necessary. technology skill in the business. You have to be
innovative, creative. You have to be committed. To
In partnership with the Lagos Business School, NITEL has believe in what you believe in. Those are the core
established a customer service centre. The aim of this skills of CRM and CEM.”
centre is to disseminate CS knowledge through research,
seminar and conferences. “We have a very functional training team. We have
experienced trainers. We have a training program
Trainers are experienced and the training program is that is derived from each individual KPI. Remember
derived from each employee’s KPI that KPI is also derived from our departmental KPI.”
Adequate The current Oracle technology allows for a 360 degree “If you go to the call center just from a single view,
technology view of the customer across all his interactions with NITEL. they (call centre agents) are able to take a
subscriber call and answer every question.”
Institutional factors are presented in the table below along the dimensions of
coercive, mimetic and normative motives that impacted on CRM implementation
at NITEL.
B. Institutional Factors
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tandem with its stakeholders to develop policies that protect consumers’ rights
whilst at the same time enabling the mobile service providers to deliver on their
excellent customer service vision.
Whilst NCC’s policies have been well received, the service providers lamented
the numerous taxes that they have to pay to conduct business in Nigeria.
Commenting on the tax issues, a respondent pointed out:
“We have multiple taxation issues, which is probably the second biggest problem we have after
power. The taxation problems we get... We pay taxes to the federal government, the state
government, and the local government. We have eight little agencies charging for the same thing”
Institutional factors
participants
Regulatory motives: Due to NCC’s collaboration with mobile service “We do have vandalism problems although. This
providers, new policies that were put in place by is a general industry problem. Community
Regulations: the regulators were not viewed as coercive but relations issues are regular.”
rather as a normal way of doing business.
Government
“We have multiple taxation issues, which is
laws/Industry regulations However, government taxes have impacted on probably the second biggest problem we have
NITEL’s customer centricity program as the high after power. The taxation problems we get... We
taxes paid by the service providers have been pay taxes to the federal government, the state
passed on to the consumer. government, and the local governments.”
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Mimetic motives: As the latest entrant in the market, NITEL ‘(Our competitors) right now are bleeding heavily.
differentiated itself by focusing on innovation and They can’t do the things that we can do. They
Competitors’ activities consequently, staying away from mimicking its can’t offer the kind of bonuses, rebates we can
offer. Because of the fact that they will bleed and
competitors. NITEL’s customer activities have
they won’t be able to survive. But because of the
been difficult to replicate despite the fact that these fact that we are a much younger, much vibrant,
existing players have had to up their games with you know, a small organization – which we are
the view to maintain their market share. more or less now part of the big players. We are
able to... We can afford to offer such value-added
services, which in the long run, in the mid-term we
will able to get a lot of value from it.”
Normative: Socio- Service expectation levels are very high “The Nigerian customer is really complex. I think
regardless of the value band of the customer. that comes from our economic situation where it
cultural and political is very hard for you to come across money. When
Customers like to show their wealth by purchasing it comes to service, they think it’s their right to get
environment
more than a handset. it as long as they have paid for it. As long as they
have paid for it, you have to provide them with the
Vandalism negatively impact on service delivery in good service.”
some communities. “Nigerians are very happy people. They are
spenders. They are loud. They have a lot of ego.
Language considerations are critical when Nothing gets them down. It’s normal to see one
communicating with some segments of the person having more than one handset.”
population. “We have a lot of vandalism, you know. You just
go to a site one day and generators are missing
Members of the communities like to see service … fibre cables get stolen”
providers that are involved in their community We found that the education in the northern
development activities. region is lower than in the southern part of
Nigeria. Lots of them don’t go to school. That’s
why you have to make the advertisement very
simple for them to understand; everything is made
in their local language. Meanwhile, in the
southern region you can do ads in English and
they will still understand”
“If we communicate in people’s language it’s
good. It improves the customer relationship
experience”
Although NITEL’s CRM program has delivered positive results for its
stakeholders, a focus area in the coming months within the organization is the
development of data mining capabilities that will allow the enterprise to offer real-
time individualized service and product offerings to its customer base.
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The results below demonstrate that NITEL’s customer data issues go beyond the
accessibility of data. They centred on how the company can best manage the
large volumes of data acquired to gain the competitive edge.
Table 6-3: Customer Data Factors with Impact on NITEL’s CRM Programme
participants
Data volumes and Just as many other companies in the “For telecoms, the challenge is not about the
telecommunications industry, NITEL has lots of data challenge of whether there is data. The challenge is
Velocity he can assess. However, the real difference lies in how to transform that information into useful insights.”
turning this data into useful insights that can be used
for decision-making in the company.
Data quality The quality of the data is generally good as the data is “For every customer that calls, we have a customer
updated daily. satisfaction survey that we run. Our data is gathered
(recency and on a daily basis.”
The new SIM registration process initiated by the
richness of the
NCC, national telecom regulator allowed NITEL to
data) collect and update its customer data. However, the
research participants commented that the data about
each customer could be enhanced by adding new
variables beyond the ones required for the sim
registration. Such additional variables could be linked
to customer preferences- products, promotional
channels, time of promotions, and so forth.
Data storage and NITEL has the required intelligence to mine its “Every survey, every customers form, as far as I am
concern is useless if you don’t have the intelligence to
mining capabilities customer data. bring out the insight from it. You have to turn them
from volume to value. Valuable insight that tells you,
this is what your customers want.”
Shifting away from the mobile telecommunications industry, the next section
presents the results from CRM implementation at a Nigerian bank.
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6.3 Results from CRM Implementation at NIBA
The banking reforms that started off in Nigeria in 2004 achieved many goals;
amongst which “the consolidation of banks through mergers and acquisitions
from a total of 89 banks to 25 banks”, the recapitalization of the larger banks and
finally an increased monitoring of the quality of service delivery levels of the
banking service providers to their communities by the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) (Lamido, 2012, p. 5). This monitoring was made effective with the
establishment of the Consumer and Financial Protection Unit within CBN, a
platform that handles consumer complaints about their dissatisfaction with their
banking service providers (Lamido, 2012) .
Following on these reforms, most banks, if not all the banks in Nigeria had to re-
focus their efforts on achieving superior performance. Despite its fairly stable
position and strong brand equity in Nigeria, NIBA, one of the highly rated banks
in Nigeria, with a footprint across major cities of Nigeria and a large customer
database, realized that a journey that did not place its customers at the centre of
its business activities will be devoid of the sheer superior performance that its
stakeholders were expecting the company to deliver. Armed with this
understanding of its business main priority area, NIBA concentrated on building
and strengthening its relationship with its customers. This was apparent in the
launch of its customer relationship management program seven years ago.
However, due to delayed executive buy-in and lack of internal expertise, the
program only gained momentum three years ago as noted by one of the research
respondents:
“Lack of management buy-in at the initial stage and lack of expertise for the implementation
delayed the implementation of our CRM program.”
Throughout its CRM journey, NIBA encountered a set of challenges that were
related to the adequacy of its Information technology systems and the culture
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change that imposed itself on the company and its staff members. The research
participants have summarized these as follows:
“The implementation was delayed because our organization used different applications that were
required to interface with the CRM application. Building up the interface was a challenge.”
“Staff members have come to realize that proper implementation of the CRM program is central
to the bank’s business.”
Despite a rough start with its CRM journey, NIBA has turned the challenges it
was facing into real business opportunities. Specifically, the company has
mobilized all the necessary resources to improve on the delivery of its CRM
efforts. These positive efforts have been translated into tangible business results.
Today, NIBA has achieved a good financial performance. For the period ending
September 2012, NIBA announced that it has realised a profit before tax of
N75.22 billion. This reflects a 50 per cent increase over the N50.13 billion that
was recorded for the same period during the previous year ("(NIBA) records N75
billion in 9 months," 2012). According to one of the bank’s Senior Managers, his
company was able to achieve such a robust growth thanks to the various
strategies that it employed such as:
“Developing deeper and broader relationship with all clients and striving to understand their
individual and industry peculiarities with a view to formulating specific solutions for each segment
of the customer base.”
“Optimally expanding the bank’s operations by adding new distribution channels and entering
into new markets where opportunities exist.”
“Maintaining the bank’s position as a leading service provider in Nigeria, while expanding its
operations internationally in West Africa and the financial capitals of the world.”
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“Striving to be a leading service provider in Nigeria by continuing to build on longstanding
relationships, capabilities and the strength of the (NIBA) brand and reputation.”
“Continually enhancing the bank’s processes and systems to deliver new capabilities and
improve operational efficiencies and achieve economies of scale.”
In light of the above comments, it is not surprising why the research participants
rated NIBA’s CRM program as “good”. Explaining the rationale behind the rating
attributed to NIBA’s CRM program, one of the research participants commented
that:
“The CRM implementation was successful as the organization began to feel its impact in the
areas of customer satisfaction which translated into increased revenues and cost reduction for
the organization.”
Although these views are shared by all research participants, there is also
recognition that there are still rooms for improvement as pointed out by one of the
respondents:
“Our CRM programme is good because it has substantially met our objectives though there are
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Figure 6-2: “As is” CRM Implementation at NIBA
149
customer-centric philosophy. Also, through extensive market research NIBA has
been able to improve its customer processes and its overall CRM program.
Some of the CRM measures during the “As is” assessment include: Number of
customers acquired, profits generated, average query or complaints handling
time, number of products held with the bank, customer satisfaction level,
operational efficiency, customer retention ratio and cost reduction.
NIBA’s CRM program has been instrumental in the achievement of the following
outcomes:
Profits generated amounted to N75.22 billion as at October 2012, a 50%
increase over the past year.
Improved customer satisfaction.
Reduced costs of servicing the customer.
Improved customer query and complaints handling time.
High customer retention ratio.
6.3.2 Presenting CRM Results from NIBA under the three dimensions of
organizational, institutional and customer data factors
A. Organisational Factors
Inarguably, seven key factors were identified by research participants as having
affected the effectiveness of the CRM programme implementation at NIBA. They
consisted of:
Vision and strategy
Adequate Technology/systems
Customer processes
Operating structure
Training and recruitment practices
Change management
CRM measures
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The remaining factors had a minimal impact on the company’s ability to deliver a
successful CRM program.
Organisational factors
Vision and The CRM vision and strategy was not well articulated “Lack of management buy-in at the initial stage and lack
strategy in the early stage of the CRM programme. This of expertise for the implementation delayed the
negatively affected buy-in and to some extent delayed implementation of our CRM program.”
the company from reaping the rewards from the
programme. Once the buy-in was obtained from the
executive team, the CRM program starts to get
traction from other parts of the business. Everybody in “The strong support of management greatly enhanced
the company knew that without a customer-centric the CRM programme.”
culture, the business will be short of meeting its
financial targets.
Enterprise wide Employees work hand in hand to ensure that “A critical factor of our CRM program was to get the
CRM complaint resolutions takes place in a speedily overall concept of the CRM programme to all members
manner. Also, the operating structure of NIBA of staff.”
encourages cross-functional interaction.
Operating The operating structure is aligned with the CRM vision “The customer service officers follow the organization
structure of delivering superb customer experience. policy on customer service.”
Consequently employees performing their day to day
functions know how their activities affect customers
and also their individual key performance indicators
which have been derived from the business targets.
Multiple With over 500 branches across Nigeria, NIBA is easily accessible to its customer base. Moreover, the company
channel uses electronic media such as the internet to disseminate key information to its customers
integration
Programme The research participants were of the opining that the “The CRM process included analytical, operational and
management CRM program was well managed at NIBA. Where collaborative CRM.”
there were areas of concerns, these were raised with
the leadership and then address accordingly.
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Change The change management process was well handled “Staff members have come to realize that proper
management as everyone was brought on board and informed implementation of the CRM program is central to the
about the CRM model and what it could deliver for the bank’s business.”
business. Although there were a few skeptics, they
were later turn into brand ambassadors for the CRM
program.
Customer To define customer processes and the types of “The use of mystery customers/shoppers aided the
processes customer solutions to be provided as part of the CRM success of our CRM programme.”
program, the company made use of mystery
shoppers.
CRM measures A set of key CRM measures were developed and “The measures of success of our CRM programme
monitored throughout the program implementation. included amongst others: results of the bank’s rating by
Some of the measures were imposed by the central independent service bureau, frequency of the service
bank of Nigeria which had the aim of improving triggers from the service ambassadors and trend
service delivery in the banking industry of Nigeria analysis from operational risk indicators relating to
customer complaints, operational errors, etc.”
Training and Effective training on service excellence was critical in “We undertook training on service excellence.”
recruitment the delivery of a successful customer centric program.
practices “Getting staff to imbibe the CRM principles was resolved
Also, skills gap assessment was conducted and where through orientation classes and training.”
there was a gap that could not be filled internally,
NIBA had to recruit externally
Adequate NIBA experienced lots of problems with the interface “The lack of software solutions made the monitoring of
technology of its CRM applications. The company finally resorted the CRM activities quite tedious.”
to build its own CRM application with the intent to
keep its costs down.
B. Institutional Factors
Whilst it may have appeared that the series of laws and policies enacted and
enforced by such institutions as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian
Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers in
Nigeria (CIBN) restricted NIBA’s CRM efforts, the research participants assert
that the impact of such policies on the CRM program, although present, was
minimal. The rationale behind this view is that most of the policies are aligned
with best practices for superb customer service delivery, a focus of NIBA’s vision.
Competitors’ activities, however, were very fierce and to some extent, acted as a
constant reminder to NIBA to keep improving on its customer service delivery
levels.
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Table 6-5: Institutional Factors with Impact on NIBA’s CRM Programme
Institutional factors
participants
Regulatory motives: CBN played a critical role in creating the awareness “The regulatory authorities continue to
around a good service culture in the banking industry of emphasize the development of strong
Regulations: Government Nigeria. Their efforts were translated into policies and customer relationship management
procedures that were implemented by the service practices”
laws/Industry regulations
operators. Thanks to an efficient consultative process
between the regulators and banking service provides,
these policies are successfully been executed and have
been embedded into the bank’s way of doing business.
Mimetic motives: Since there was not previously a culture of “excellent “A strong competitive environment also
customer service”, the initiatives driven by CBN ensured that people at NIBA were
Competitors’ activities together with those of banking operators heightened committed to the success of the CRM
programme”
customers’ awareness about service quality. As a result
of this, banks try to perform above their peers and are
constantly monitoring their competitors’ activities in the
areas of customer service delivery.
NIBA’s greatest impediment in this area, specially in the nascent stage of its
CRM program, was to obtain an analytical tool that could provide the intelligence
required to create individualized customer solutions. Customer data are
constantly generated throughout the company’s interactions with its customers.
However, the data which is located in the data warehouse has to be mined
intelligently for effective marketing campaigns.
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Table 6-6: Customer Data Factors With Impact on NIBA’s CRM Programme
participants
Data volumes and Just like many of its peers, NIBA generates a vast amount of customer data throughout its interactions with
customers. Such sources include the internet, customer application for new products, contact centre, survey
Velocity forms and much more. The intelligent application of this data to the business is what can differentiate its CRM
programmes to its peers.
Data quality It is gathered that the quality of the data acquired tend “The quality of customer data was critical for the
to be good. However, there is still room to enrich the success of the CRM program.”
(recency and data with additional customer information that relate to
specific customer preferences.
richness of the
data)
Data storage and NIBA’s greatest impediment in this area, specially in the nascent stage of its CRM program, was to obtain an
analytical tool that can help provide the intelligence required to create individualized customer solutions.
mining capabilities
CRM implementation in the banking and mobile telephony companies that were
studied in this research differed in many aspects. First, at NITEL, CRM was
driven by top management-- with the CEO and his direct peers advocating in all
internal forums the necessity for NITEL to continue to be a customer driven
company. This advocacy was also translated in to the type and level of resources
the leadership provided to the company so that the CRM programme can be
successfully implemented. On the contrary, at NIBA, CRM was implemented from
the bottom up as the departmental Heads spent a lot of time on convincing
Executives on the benefits of implementing a CRM program. At first, the value of
CRM at NIBA was not recognized by the leadership. Eventually this changed
over time as the middle management team was able to convince the leadership
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through small successes what the true benefits of CRM could be for NIBA if the
programme had the unconditional support of top leadership. Another point of
difference between NIBA and NITEL was the mimetic behavior of NIBA. On the
contrary, NITEL concentrated on innovation by leveraging off its customer
insights to design new and value-add customer solutions. Thirdly, using
Hofstede’s “Confucian dynamism” theory that classifies Nigeria as a short-tem
oriented culture (Fang, 2003), the performance of NITEL has come to
demonstrate that the time orientation of a country should be dissociated from the
company that operates in that country. This theory posits that countries with a
long-term orientation culture are positive, dynamic, future oriented and innovative
as a result of this, companies that operate in countries with a long-term
orientation culture will tend to be innovative and future-oriented. Despite the fact
that NITEL operates in a country with a short-term oriented culture, it was able to
achieve innovation in its products, services and customer solutions; although this
is not necessarily true for NIBA.
The areas of similarities for both companies range from having an operating
structure that supports their CRM vision to data store and mining capabilities
issues as well as the recognition those coercive motives were not drivers behind
the implementation of their CRM programmes.
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CHAPTER 7: CROSS-CASE STUDY RESULTS
This novel approach of using the question and answer format to report a multiple
case study is supported by (Yin, 2009, p. 172):
“Case study evidence does not need to be presented in the traditional narrative
form. An alternative format for presenting the same evidence is to write the
narrative in question-and-answer form. A series of questions can be posed, with
the answers taking some reasonable length. Each answer can contain all the
relevant evidence and can even be augmented with the tabular presentations
and citations.”
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7.1 How is CRM Implementation in Emerging Markets Different from High
Income, Industrialized Markets?
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Figure 7-1: CRM Implementation Conceptual Model for Emerging Markets
CRMIEM = (P1 + P2 + P3) + (P4 + P5)
P1A: Vision and strategy
P1E: Programme
management
P1: Organisational P1F: Change management I
P2C: Normative
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A. Organizational Dimension
Across all four cases, the collected data reveals that there are ten variables that
can impede on or enhance CRM implementation success in emerging market
economies. Each of these variables is discussed in this section.
Overall, this finding suggests that a CRM vision and strategy that is clearly
articulated and actively supported by the leadership will result in a positive CRM
outcome. Thus:
Proposition P1A: Companies that have a CRM vision and strategy that is well
articulated and championed by a dynamic CEO are more likely to implement a
successful CRM programme.
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The evidences gathered from this study indicate that CRM has been
implemented in companies in which departments such as marketing, contact
centre, business knowledge or information technology operate in silos, which
made the successful implementation an uphill battle. A case in point is the SABA
and NIBA situation. Unless, all departments, business units and employees are
rallied behind the CRM vision, the CRM implementation programme is doomed to
failure. As a result of this, CRM implementation should not be departmental or
silo-focused; but rather an enterprise wide initiative that combines “physical
resources (e.g., computers and technological infrastructure), informational
resources (e.g., customer databases, salespeople’s call records, customer
service interaction), organizational resources (e.g., customer-oriented culture,
information-sharing routines)” and people (e.g., cross-functional teams
representing diverse departments and business units) to provide value to a
defined customer base at a profit (Raman et al., 2006, p. 40). Thus:
Proposition P1B: Companies that have an enterprise wide CRM programme that
integrates business resources across business units, departments, and all the
hierarchical levels of the organization are more likely to implement a successful
CRM programme.
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CRM does not acknowledge the critical place that an effective organizational
design can play in the delivery of a successful CRM programme.
However, this study reveals that the CRM vision will only be realized in a
company once its operating structure is aligned with the vision of customer-
centricity. The NITEL case study embodies this alignment between the operating
model and the CRM vision. In contrast, SATEL is very much designed as a sales
organization despite the fact that the company has a CRM vision that focuses on
customer centricity. As one of the research respondents at SATEL pointed out:
“We must relook at the structure of our business. We can’t implement CRM using our current
sales structure”
Proposition P1C: Companies that have an operating structure that is not sales,
product or process focused; but that is rather customer-centric and aligned with
the CRM vision and strategy are more likely to implement a successful CRM
programme.
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A.4 Multiple channel integration
Within South Africa, both SATEL and SABA have also leveraged the informal
channels to engage with their customers. In Nigeria, whilst traditional media have
largely been adopted, there is an increased usage of the web channel as a
support vehicle for marketing activities. Customers still prefer the face to face
interaction which explains the importance of branch network accessibility. NIBA’s
large footprint across Nigeria gives it an opportunity to service its customers
across the various regions of the country. The multiple channel integration has
enabled these companies to up-and cross-sell their products whilst building
customer loyalty. Overall:
Proposition P1D: Companies that can astutely integrate the traditional channels
with the new social media channels as well as the informal channels are more
likely to implement a successful CRM programme.
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A.5 Programme management
It was found that those companies that achieved an above average rating on
their CRM programme; namely NITEL and NIBA followed a standardised
programme management methodology that was understood by the project team
members. Coupled with this, these companies’ CRM programmes were run by
individuals with strong personalities and high credibility rating in their
organisations. These programme Leads had both Programme management
technical expertise as well as service management and people orientation skills.
On the other hand, those companies that had an average or below average
rating on their CRM programme had many issues with their programme
management approach. In the words of one of the research participants at SABA:
“The way the program has been run has been difficult. It’s different project management styles or
program management styles…Whereas if you use a standard methodology like PRINCE2, you
can get a guy fresh out of PRINCE2 training. He knows how PRINCE2 works and you can get
him working immediately.”
This situation led the project to be delivered late and far above the initial budget
constraints; thereby making the entire programme very onerous. In this case, the
situation was exacerbated as the high turnover rate of programme managers.
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Therefore, it is proposed that:
In this study, it was found that change was easily implemented in those
organizations that were fairly new or had been in operations in less than five
years. Conversely, the CRM change management process encountered a lot of
resistance in those businesses that were much older. However, regardless of the
business life stages, the adoption of the CRM programme as part of the change
management process was feasible when the change intervention took place
throughout the CRM programme life stages. In other words, employees were
more supportive of the CRM programme when they felt that they were
communicated to not just at the end of the programme; but also from its
beginning.
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This summary engenders this proposition:
Key customer processes covering, sales, marketing and service and support
have been identified as impacting on the CRM effectiveness. In this study, the
necessity to have customer processes that are designed, mapped out and
documented was apparent in the research findings. Moreover, the documented
processes need to be communicated with internal stakeholders. In the instances
where new policies and procedures are implemented and should such policies
and procedures affect the customer processes, these processes need to be
amended accordingly so as not to negatively impact on customers’ engagements
with their banking or mobile telephony service providers. This finding is true for all
four companies involved in this study across both industries and countries.
Overall:
Proposition P1G: Companies that define, design, document and communicate
their customer processes with relevant internal stakeholders are more likely to
implement a successful CRM programme.
CRM measures refer to qualitative and quantitative metrics that are linked to the
CRM programmes. These measures provide an indication of what the CRM
programme aims to achieve over a defined period of time and they are tracked
against past company CRM related targets.
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This study reveals that there are a set of measures that have been defined and
monitored by SABA, SATEL, NIBA and NITEL. The common CRM measures that
were highlighted in this study include:
Revenues and profits generated. They are concerned with the total sales and
profits generated from the CRM programme.
Service costs: These costs represent the total cost of the programme and as
such include people costs, systems and technology (software and hardware)
costs, training cost, administration and marketing costs. The aim of these
companies were to minimise their service costs overtime.
Customer loyalty: This has a number of indicators such as the customer
lifetime value with the service provider as well as the net promoter score. The
net promoter score uses current customer satisfaction level with a company to
forecast the customer loyalty with that company. Customer loyalty is an
important measure for these companies as they believe that their companies
‘revenues can best be achieved if they have loyal customers.
Customer retention ratio: This is referred to the company’s ability to retain
customers and can be computed by dividing the number of new customer
acquired in a year with the number of customers retained within the same
period.
Average customer handling time: This is the time the company takes to
handle or respond to customer queries. The average handling time will vary
per channel. For instance, a benchmark for customer handling time in the
contact centre is about 8 minutes whilst a query received via email or the
internet can take up to 48 to 72 hours before it is attended to.
First call resolution rate: This measure refers to the number of calls that are
handled by the first tier contact centre agents without being escalated to the
next level. This is computed by dividing the number of calls resolved by first
tier agents with the total number of calls received by them.
Customer complaints: This is concerned with the number and types of
complaints received by customer across all the customers’ touch points.
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An important revelation of this study was that CRM measures that are linked to
individual performances are most likely to be met. As a consequence of this, to
achieve CRM success, companies need to link their CRM measures to
employees’ key performance indicators. Summarizing:
Proposition P1G: Companies that have clearly defined CRM measures that are
linked to employees’ key performance indicators are more likely to implement a
successful CRM programme.
Technical skills
Business management skills
Social/people skills
An overriding skill that was identified regardless of the job level and type is a
service-orientation skill. This is a type of skill that employees can display when
engaging with customers by showing empathy and going the extra mile to meet
and exceed customers’ expectations.
168
Proposition P1H: Companies that have aligned their recruitment skill gaps with
their service excellence skills training are more likely to implement a successful
CRM programme.
Not having a 360 degree view of their customer interactions with their firms, has
been one of the setbacks faced by those companies that have not performed well
in their CRM programme. This is also true for this study. It was revealed that a
CRM technology or system, outsourced or insourced, need to capture all
customer data in a single platform that allows business decision-makers to have
an understanding of customer behaviour patterns at their individual level.
Moreover, these stored customer data need to be updated automatically
whenever the customer engages with the service provider. It was also found that
the reason why companies adopted an inadequate CRM system was mainly due
to the fact that the business requirements were not considered. The CRM
technology specifications were put together by the information technology team
with limited consultation with other business stakeholders. Summarising:
Proposition P1I: Companies that select a CRM system based on their business
requirements (and not just technology/systems requirements) thereby enabling
them to obtain a single view of their customer interactions with them are more
likely to implement a successful CRM programme.
B. Institutional Dimension
Prior research provides some interesting insights and the required theoretical
context on how institutional norms, values and regulations impact on companies’
behaviours in an institutional environment (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Scott,
1987). Based on the three types of isomorphisms proposed by DiMaggio and
Powell (1983) namely coercive, normative and mimetic; the results of this
169
investigation on the likelihood effects of institutional isomorphisms on CRM
implementation success in emerging markets is presented.
Interestingly, the field study also reveals that the multiple taxations are a major
problem in emerging markets, specially in Nigeria. These various taxes that
companies have to pay for to the national and local government impact on their
170
operating expenses. Consequently, in order to remain profitable, these high costs
incurred are passed over to customers who end up paying high charges for the
services they receive. Thus:
Mimetic isomorphism tends to take place when there are market changes. This
ambiguity in the market forces companies to mimic the behaviour of other
industry players being viewed by them as successful.
It has been observed in this study that the banking and mobile telephony sector,
regardless of their countries differ when it comes to mimicking competitors’
activities. Both mobile operators in South Africa and Nigeria have a strategy that
focuses on innovation. With this in mind, they have positioned themselves as the
leader in the industry when it comes to offering innovative customer solutions to
their customers. Keeping this in mind, these organisations are not affected by the
activities of their competitors, direct or indirect.
On the contrary, in the banking sector of South Africa and Nigeria, both service
providers do not hesitate to behave in a similar fashion as their competitors; by
adopting, as an example, the same marketing and communication practices. This
is more visible when competitive activities enable market players to acquire and
retain customers or when such activities can enhance the overall outcomes of
their marketing drives.
In light of what has been observed, it can be concluded that mimetic motives for
CRM implementation in an emerging market environment is a function of the type
of industry the company belongs to. Given this logic, it is proposed that:
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Proposition P2A1: Mimetic motives for successful CRM implementation
programmes in emerging markets are more likely to be adopted by those
companies that operate in the banking sector than those in the mobile telephony
sector.
Additionally, it was found that these banking institutions that were mimicking their
competitors were also in a position to still attract and retain customers. In other
words, having similar CRM activities as their competitors did not deter banking
service providers’ customers to continue to engage with their banks. Overall:
Proposition P2A2: Mimetic motives are less likely to negatively impact on the
success of CRM implementation programmes in the banking sector of emerging
markets.
This study reveals that there are three normative mechanisms that are found in
emerging markets. They include languages, political stability and the ability of the
company to be involved in the programmes that help address community
challenges. These societal mechanisms have an impact on the outcome of the
CRM programme. Thus, effective CRM practices by organizations should take
heed of these normative factors.
With regard to the community involvement, it was found that companies that get
involved in addressing social issues such as unemployment, training or the
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provision of much needed infrastructures at local schools can help in addressing
the effectiveness of CRM programmes in emerging markets. For example, in
South Africa, as part of its enterprise development, SATEL has empowered the
local community in creating jobs through the hiring of zoners. They are
community leaders who understand their communities as a consequence they
receive training from SATEL and are provided with the necessary infrastructure
to sell airtime to community members. These zoners also earn a commission
from these airtimes sold. In Nigeria, NITEL has also been active in promoting
entrepreneurship through the partnerships with local universities and government
agencies. Moreover, NITEL also invests in educating its communities about the
negative impact of vandalism of telecommunications masses on the quality of
services mobile telephony can deliver to the communities. The resulting effects of
these positive interventions has been increased revenues and brand loyalty to
the service providers. Based on this logic, it is proposed that:
Proposition P2C1: Companies that invest in social programmes that uplift their
communities are more likely to implement a successful CRM programme.
It was also found that the political environment plays a critical role in a company’s
ability to increase revenues, sell more products or reduce costs. In South Africa,
research participants recognise that the fairly stable political environment has
helped the company in achieving its CRM objectives. In Nigeria, whilst the
potential of attracting more customers is immense, companies that were
interviewed shied away from having a presence in some regions, and in
particular in the northern province of the country, simply because of the political
unrests that prevail in that part of the country. Given this, it is suggested that:
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Language is undoubtedly one of the important factors for effective
communication in emerging markets. For example, in Nigeria, NITEL believes
that it has grown market share because it has been innovative in capture the
hearts and minds of its youth market by using the type of language that this
segment of the population can identify with. This also goes for other companies
in South Africa who have adapted their language to the environment they are in.
For example, call centre agents in South Africa are able to assist clients in at
least 3 of the official languages.
Proposition P2C3: Companies that interact with their communities in their local
languages are more likely to implement a successful CRM programme.
The customer data dimension refers to customer record and the leveraging of
company resources to using such records in the successful development and
implementation of its CRM programme. Prominent CRM scholars such as Payne
and Frow (2005) assert that data repository is an important component of the
information management process. Keeping with this view, it emerged from the
data compiled during this research that, in addition to customer data storage and
mining capabilities, a successful CRM programme is dependent on the customer
data quality, encompassing the recency and richness of customer data.
Customer data volumes and velocity was also discussed by the research
participants.
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them to engage with customers on a one on one basis. Another example is that
of NIBA in Nigeria. NIBA faces the challenge of keeping its customer records up
to date. So, having a voluminous database and the capacity to obtain such
customer data at a fast rate is not an indication that the CRM programme is
successful. Thus, it is proposed that:
Whilst the size of the database is not indicative of the success of the programme,
research participants agree that the quality (recency and richness) of customer
data is an important step towards successful CRM programme. At SABA in
particular, it was highlighted that by enriching its customer database, the
company was in a better position not just to reduce its costs to serve its
customers; but also to stop “annoying” their customers as more relevant
messages were communicated to such customers at their preferred time, using
their preferred communication channels. The same goes for NITEL. Its customer
preference centre is steering the organisation towards creating innovative
solutions for individual customers. Hence:
This study reveals that the thrust of a successful CRM programme lies in a
company’s ability to integrate its analytical and operational CRM capabilities. For
this to occur, companies need to have robust data storage and mining
capabilities. On the basis of this logic, it is proposed that:
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Proposition P3C1: Companies with robust data storage and mining capabilities
are more likely to implement a successful CRM programme.
On top of the above-mentioned three dimensions, the findings suggest that there
are mediating variables that need to be considered in the pre-and post
implementation phases of the CRM programme.
Moreover, there were additional indicators that led to the conclusion that an
effective CRM programme is achieved in organisations in which there is a strong
culture of innovation, speed of delivery of programmes and a commitment to the
uplifment of community lives. Summarising:
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7.1.2 Contrasting research findings from CRM implementation in emerging
markets against high income industrialised countries
177
Table 7-3 contrasts emerging markets findings against CRM literature in HIC
markets whilst table 7-2 provides a legend displaying the symbol used as well
as their description.
Symbol Description
≠ Inconsistent
_ Not found
x Not covered
The clear Harvey ball symbolizes the consistency of the factor identified in the
case study in emerging markets with what was found in the CRM literature in
high income and industrialized countries (HIC); and also indicates that there is no
need to adapt to the emerging market context when it comes to the application of
the identified factor.
The symbol (≠) means that there is inconsistency between the identified factors
in emerging markets and those found in HICs. It also indicates that there is a high
178
degree of impact (positive or negative) that these factors have on the
effectiveness of CRM implementation in emerging markets.
The symbol (-) means that the factor was found in the emerging context but not
in the HICs.
The symbol (x) means that the identified factor was not covered in the literature
of CRM implementation in high income, industrialized countries.
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Table 7-3: Contrasting Emerging Markets Findings against the CRM Literature in HICs
High income,
countries (HIC)
Research
Literature review SABA SATEL NIBA NITEL General comments
findings
180
mentioned in HIC countries.
networks.
181
Training and change Change Change management practices in EM are
CRM measures CRM measures this study that CRM measures that are linked to
business.
182
embed the continuous success of the CRM
of the organisation.
183
mimic their competitors. Thus, the findings were
followers.
political _ _ _ _ literature on
environment
effective CRM implementation in HICs.
implementation in HICs.
184
The cross case analysis of CRM implementation in the banking and mobile
telephony sectors of Nigeria and South Africa provides fertile grounds for
acknowledging the uniqueness of these emerging markets. It clearly illustrates
how CRM implementation in emerging markets differ from high income
industrialized markets. Typically, this study found that out of the 16 factors that
were identified,
185
industry saturation level as well as a culture of innovation, the speed of
CRM implementation and the company’s involvement in its community’s
activities.
7.2 What Are the Contingency Factors that Could Contribute Towards CRM
Success or Failure in Emerging Markets?
Following on the results presented in the earlier section of this chapter, the
contingency factors for CRM implementation in emerging markets are computed
in table 7-4 below:
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In light of the above formula, it can be concluded that the contingency factors for
successful CRM implementation in emerging markets include:
7.3 How Can the CRM Strategy Be Adapted to the Emerging Market
Context?
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CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter concludes this study. First, it presents (8.1) the conclusions and
recommendations which are then followed by (8.2) the implication and (8.3)
limitation sections. Finally, (8.4) some areas for future research are suggested.
8.1 Conclusions
188
emerging market context? The consistency matrix that is shown below links the
research questions with the findings and suggested research propositions.
What are the contingency factors It was found that companies that want to P6
that could contribute towards CRM achieve success in their CRM
success or failure in emerging implementation programme in emerging
markets markets would need to be cognizant of the
following contingency factors:
How can the strategy of CRM be The research results show that CRM P4+P5 + P6
adapted to the emerging market implementation can be effectively adapted
context? to emerging markets by:
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influenced by two elements; namely
the maturity level of their industries
and the company lifestage
To address the first research question of this study, the differences and
similarities of CRM implementation in industrialized and emerging markets were
discussed in this report. As illustrated in table 8-2, the main findings across the
three dimensions of organizational, institutional and customer data factors were
grouped in factors that were consistent, inconsistent and not found in emerging
markets.
190
Table 8-2: Summary of CRM Factors in Emerging Markets that are New,
Consistent, and Inconsistent with Industrialized Markets
Indicators Comments
Consistent/Inconsistent/Not
found
Vision and strategy In both markets, it was found that a well Consistent
articulated CRM vision and strategy that
is supported by the leadership is a key
factor for CRM success.
191
both markets.
Training and recruitment Whilst in both markets the need for Consistent- but adaptation
practices training and recruitment of employees is required
with appropriate skills was mentioned, in
emerging markets, there appears to be
a stronger need to have people with the
analytical skills and a stronger service
oriented culture. However, these skills
are not always readily available. Also,
training practices tend to be slightly
different in emerging markets. The
emphasis is still on class-based training-
although e-learning is also growing.
192
points with the company.
Coercive isomorphisms All the four companies that were studied Inconsistent
across the two countries indicated that
coercive measures were not a reason
for adopting their CRM practices. They
have all acknowledged the necessity of
their respective industries to be
regulated and are working closely with
the regulators to devise and adopt
practices that will enhance service
delivery standards. They view this
approach as sound way of doing
business in the markets in which they
operate.
Normative isomorphisms This is a new factor that was not found New factor
in the literature of CRM in industrialized
markets.
Customer data volumes and The findings of this study reveal that the New factor
velocity ability to manage large volumes of data
is imperative for the success of CRM
implementation; particularly since the
volumes, sources and velocity of data
has increased over the years. This
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specific indicator was not mentioned in
the CRM literature on industrialized
markets.
Customer data storage and It was found in both emerging and Consistent
mining capabilities industrialized markets that companies
need to have robust data storage and
mining capabilities for an effective CRM
programme to be realised.
The answer to the second research question was based on an equation model
that was developed by the researcher. This equation model took in consideration
the difference between CRM factors in industrialized and emerging markets.
Specifically, factors that were new, inconsistent or consistent (but that required
adaption) were identified as contingency factors for CRM implementation in
emerging markets. In other words, the effective application of these factors by
organizations when implementing CRM programmes in emerging markets will
undoubtedly enhance the success rate of their CRM programmes. These
contingency factors are exhibited in table 8-1.
The third research question elicited responses on how the strategy of CRM can
be adapted to the emerging market context. Based on the research findings, it
was found that an organizational culture that fosters innovation, speed of
implementation as well as that links its CRM programmes to social investment
activities better equips the company to enhance the success rate of its CRM
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programmes. Moreover, defining and applying CRM indicators relevant to the
emerging market context and understanding the contingency factors for CRM
implementation in this market will not just assist companies in avoiding the CRM
pitfalls; but will place them into the right trajectory to success. Nevertheless, this
study also found that prior to embarking on a CRM programme companies must
assess their level of CRM readiness which is determined by two elements;
namely the maturity level of their industry and the lifestage of the company.
8.2 Recommendations
Because inductive, theory building rather than theory testing is the goal of the
thesis, its final chapter must always present a proposed theory to solve the “how
to” research problem. Moreover, the final “further research” section of the thesis
will acknowledge that this theory will have to be tested for (Perry, 1998).
Consistent with this view, the recommendations that have emanated from this
study will now be presented.
To adapt their CRM strategy to the emerging market context, it is proposed that
companies:
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8.2.1 Assessing the readiness of companies to implement CRM
One of the key insights of this research has been the level of expectations that
CRM programmes have created in organisations. Perhaps, due to their limited
understanding of their environment together with increased pressures from both
shareholders and customers, company’s executives have had high expectations
of their CRM programmes. This is despite the much publicized high rate of CRM
failure. To better manage these expectations, it is recommended that company
executives invest the necessary amount of time in understanding the dynamics of
their companies and industries before setting expectation levels on their CRM
implementation programme. An effective way of doing so is to use a heat map to
plot the current positioning of the company.
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Figure 8-1: Heatmap of CRM predicted success/failure rate
High SAB
A
SAT
Industry
EL
saturation
level
NIB
Medium
A
NI
TE
L
Low
As stated earlier, there are guidelines that have been provided to companies that
want to use the CRM heatmap as a tool to better set their expectation levels of
their CRM programme. The details behind the strategic actions for each company
in a quadrant type is exhibited in table 8-3.
By doing so, it is hope that CRM executives can be in a better position to assess
their readiness for implementing their CRM strategy in an emerging market
context; and also to adopt the appropriate strategy necessary to enhance the
success of their CRM programmes in such emerging markets.
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Table 8-3: Legend on CRM Predicted Failure/Success Rate and Key
Strategic Actions
type
198
Total cultural transformation is capabilities
required Manage stakeholders’
expectations
199
Table 8-4: CRM Implementation Index
Rating
Organisational Vision and strategy We have a well articulated company vision that centers on customer
delight and commitment (and not sales or product or processes).
We have conducted a CRM readiness assessment using the Heatmap of
predicted CRM success/failure (see figure 7.2 above).
We have triangulated the results of this assessment against other data
sources to develop a CRM strategy relevant to our company.
We have a clearly defined CRM strategy that fully supports our vision of
customer delight and commitment.
Our CRM strategy has been broken down into actionable steps for
implementation and review by the business every six months.
200
Multichannel Our marketing efforts combine both traditional and new media to attract
integration and retain customers.
When use at least three informal channels to interact with our
consumers.
We understand the needs of our informal markets and the types of
channels of communication that appeal to them.
We effectively use social media such as twitter, facebook and linkedin to
attract and retain our customers.
Programme Our CRM programme management Lead has a recognised Project
management Management certification/technical skills.
The CRM team uses a standardized programme management
methodology that is understood by all.
Our CRM programme assigned financial resources, people and time are
realistic.
Our organisation has an excellence centre that has helped in prioritizing
the importance of this CRM programme, thereby indicating to internal
stakeholders to avail themselves to assist in achieving the programme
goals.
There is a Programme management plan incorporating key milestones,
tasks, allocated resources in place and it is monitored regularly by a
dedicated CRM team member.
CRM measures Our CRM measures are clearly defined and are achievable.
Our CRM measures are linked to each employee’s and department key
performance indicators.
Our CRM targets are closely monitored by the business.
201
Customer Our customer processes are defined, mapped out, documented and
processes communicated to the business.
New company policies and procedures that impact on customer
processes are swiftly communicated to relevant business stakeholders
so that such processes are amended.
Training and The CRM team has individuals who are subject matter experts in: CRM
recruitment strategy, analytical CRM, technical CRM (deep understanding of the
practices CRM software and its limitations, Prince2 methodology, database
management and campaign management
Our organisation recruit people with a service-oriented attitude
We are increasingly hiring people with an innovative mindset who are
creative and committed to delivering innovative solutions to our
customers
Adequate Our CRM system was selected on the basis of our business
technology requirements
Our CRM systems are automated
Our CRM system allows us to have a single view of our customers
across all touch points
Institutional Coercive We regularly engage with our industry regulators with the view to help
isomorphisms provide inputs into policies that can enhance our industry and improve
the services we provide.
We believe that coercion must be used by the relevant institutions to get
us to meet the minimum customer service standard levels.
Our service delivery standard levels meet or exceed the required
standards set by the relevant institutions such as the national industry
regulator.
202
Normative We take language barriers in consideration when engaging with
isomorphisms customers, particularly with those from diverse cultural background.
We are cognizant that we operate in a market in which communities
have daily challenges such as unemployment, poor health infrastructure,
limited education and as such we make sure that our actions help
improve the standards of the communities in which we operate.
The short-term or long-term orientation of the leaders of this country do
not impact on our company long-term orientation or innovation when
making business decisions.
Customer data Customer data We have multiple sources of customer data including but not limited to
volumes and branches, internet, post call survey via the call centre, new application
velocity forms, website, facebook page, etc.
We have efficient processes and tools that help us manage the high
velocity of data we receive.
Customer data The data we receive tend to be up to date.
quality The data we have is rich as it captures a lot of details about individual
customers.
With this data, we have created customer preference centres to allow us
to better engage with our customers.
Customer data We have a central data repository that integrates all the customer data
storage and mining across the various companies platforms into a single platform.
capabilities We have a sophisticated data analysis tool that enable us to analyse
large data and to make recommendations to the business.
203
8.3 Implications
There are several management implications that follow from this research on
CRM implementation in the banking and mobile telephony sectors of Nigeria and
South Africa.
First, it can be concluded from the research findings that although there may be
some similarities in CRM implementation factors between high income and
emerging markets; there are clear differences that any marketer interested in
emerging markets should be cognizant of. These are concerned with the
contingency factors for CRM implementation in emerging markets. The study
uncovered five main factors; namely operating structure of the company,
recruitment and training practices, multichannel integration, normative
isomorphisms and customer data quality; which management needs to take heed
when implementing their programmes in emerging markets. Thus, the necessity
to adapt one CRM strategy to the emerging market context can not be
overstated, specially if companies want to increase their CRM success rate.
Moreover, the scarcity of research on CRM in Africa means that Managers never
really had the opportunity to consider a model of CRM developed by academic
scholars that could be relevant to their contexts. This study has closed this gap
by proposing a new conceptual model for CRM implementation that could be
used by decision-makers to enhance the success rate of their programmes. This
model brings to the fore three key dimensions of CRM namely organization,
customer data and institutions.
204
Second, before embarking upon a CRM programme, companies need to know
what they are getting themselves into. This will enable them to better manage the
business expectations in terms of expected CRM revenues, timelines and overall
impact on customer delight and loyalty. In response to this, it is proposed that
companies that are viewing CRM as a potential source of competitive advantage
should perform a CRM readiness assessment as this will shed some light on the
potential success or failure rate to be achieved. Consistent with this, it is
suggested that they apply the newly developed heatmap of CRM success and
failure. This heatmap is a tool that uses the company industry maturity level and
lifestage to predict its potential level of success and failure rate. In addition to
this, it provides management with a specific strategic approach to adopt
depending on their position level on the heatmap. It is undoubtedly a practical
and useful tool that can help management to mitigate the failure rate of their
programmes; and most importantly, to better manager CRM expectations in the
company.
Finally, the CRM index which is a composite of 16 indicators gives company a set
of detailed measures to appraise their CRM performance. This is an incredible
opportunity for companies to start identifying their weak and strong points as part
of their CRM development and implementation programme and to swiftly address
issues that are misaligned with the identified CRM measures or accepted CRM
practice.
205
8.3.2 Theoretical implications
The CRM literature pays particular attention to the organizational factors linked
with CRM success. As a result of this, it recognizes that these organizational
factors are drivers of CRM practices (Foss et al., 2008; S. King & T. Burgess,
2008; Mendoza et al., 2007). Moreover, a compilation of studies on CRM
(Chakravorti, 2009; Coltman et al., 2009; Gouthier & Schmid, 2003; Keramati et
al., 2010; Wang & Feng, 2012), marketing (Boulding & Christen, 2008; Golder &
Tellis, 1993; Ortega & García-Villaverde, 2011) and management (Fatima et al.,
2011; Holtbrügge et al., 2010; Jiang & Zhao, 2012; Kunc & Morecroft, 2010) as a
whole has been developed from the resource-based view (RBV) approach .
Despite the general tendency to have RBV as the main theoretical lens for CRM
studies as shown above, recently published research conducted by Kirca et al.
(2011) demonstrates that the institutional theory is gaining support from the
broader marketing community, particularly with regard to justifying how foreign
firms behave in host countries. Hillebrand et al. (2011) point to a similar
conclusion when they suggest that institutional processes can be important in
explaining the adoption of CRM practices. This theory focuses on how social
pressures from outside organisations influence the structures and practices of
organisations.
In light of the above, it is apparent that the institutional theory has primarily been
applied to high income, industrialized markets as opposed to emerging markets
206
and that prior research in management practices have yet to address in a single
study all the three types of isomorphisms as defined by (DiMaggio & Powell,
1983) namely Coercive, mimetic and normative.
This study filled this gap by investigating how coercive, normative and mimetic
motives are driving companies to adopt given CRM practices in the banking and
mobile telephony sectors of Nigeria and South Africa. Interestingly, whilst the
normative motives were supported in this study, the coercive motives as
discussed by DiMaggio and Powell (1983) did not find support in this research.
In other words, companies in both Nigeria and South Africa did not feel coerced
to adopt CRM practices against the fear of being sanctioned by the industry
regulator or any institution. They viewed the laws, government policies and
regulations as aligned with sound business practices. The ongoing engagement
between the government and the business communities also ensured that new
policies that are designed and implemented to improve the service level
standards of service providers have taken into consideration the needs of the
customers, the business communities as well as the national priority areas. The
research findings also lend support to the proposition that mimetic behaviors are
driven by the type of industry the company operates into. For example, it was
found that regardless of their countries, companies in emerging markets that are
in the banking industry tend to mimic the behavior or actions of their competitors
or any other players in the markets that is perceived to be doing something good.
On the contrary, those that are in the mobile telephony sector did not embrace
the idea of having a “me too” strategy; but rather, they focused on always being
ahead of their competitors by constantly designing new solutions that could be
attractive to their targeted audiences.
207
as discussed above; and (c) Hofstede’s fifth value dimension of national
culture of short-term vs. long-term orientation.
208
(Almotairi, 2010), and the United Kingdom (Eid, 2007; Rogers, 2005; H. Wilson et
al., 2002).
Moreover, inferences from this study were not just drawn from four within case
analyses; but also from cross-case analyses that compared how the identified
factors linked to the organization, its institution and customer data performed in
each company. The rich data that was generated can help in addressing the
question of analytical generalisability often identified as a weakness of qualitative
studies.
As purported in the earlier part of this research report, the discourse on CRM has
made a tremendous contribution to CRM in high income, industrialized markets;
whereas emerging markets have lagged behind. This study attempts to address
this imbalance. The originality of this study thus lies in it highlighting the
peculiarities of CRM in Nigeria and South Africa, thereby establishing that these
markets are different from high income, industrialized markets. In addition to this,
the study defines the contingency factors that can enhance or impede on CRM
success in these emerging markets. The proposed CRM conceptual model
discussed earlier makes a great contribution to the literature on CRM in emerging
markets.
209
8.3.5 Societal Implications
This study makes a unique contribution in the field of social innovation because it
stresses that Africa is unique and organizations that are to be successful need to
consider creative, innovative ways to engage with their customers. By doing so,
these companies need to employ new ways to engage customers. This is evident
in the research findings as it was shown that thanks to innovation, companies
were able to empower disadvantaged communities by creating jobs whilst
involving these communities in the profit making scheme that they created. For
example, as part of their CRM programmes these companies found creative
ways to penetrate the informal market by bringing them solutions that meet their
needs and their budget whilst engaging them in the co-creation process of future
customer solutions. Naturally, this process encouraged organization to be
cognizant of the environment in which they operate when developing new
products or servicing their customers. It reinforced the necessity for organizations
to perpetually comprehend the dynamics of the markets they target and to
position themselves as good corporate citizens that only embark upon
sustainable activities that positively impact on the lives of their communities. As a
result of this, this study has cast new light on the linkage between CRM and
corporate social investment. It has heightened the importance of corporate social
investments in building strengthening relationships with customers. As pointed
out by one the research participants: “I have to have a bit of a community
dynamic in my (CRM) approach. I can't just come here and put out products. It's
got to be relevant. It's got to talk to the target market and it's got to have a bit of
societal flair”.
210
8.4 Limitations
Prior to suggesting directions for future research, the limitations of this study
need to be pointed out. A few limitations consisting of theoretical and
methodological applications to this study are discussed below:
This study only focused on the fifth dimension of Hofstede’s value dimensions of
national cultures and purposefully disregarded the other five dimensions. Whilst
this fifth dimension of confucian dynamism has not been applied to prior CRM
research in emerging markets, it can be useful to research all six dimensions in
the future.
211
of CRM but rather on the effect that CRM has on service quality which in turn
affects customer loyalty and satisfaction (Santouridis & Trivellas, 2010), on the
necessity for actionable insights that can drive strategies applicable to either
individual or segments of customers (Peppers & Rogers, 2011) and the
importance of co-creation of value during the relational exchanges between
companies and their customers (K. Chan, 2008; Cova, Dalli, & Zwick, 2011;
Christian Grönroos, 2011; Payne et al., 2008; Vargo, Maglio, & Akaka, 2008).
This study brings points to a number of avenues for future research not just
because of the limitations of the study; but also because of the fact that this
study’s main focus was on theory building rather than theory testing. Whilst this
research has been helpful in the development of sets of CRM research
propositions and an index, these need to be tested. This creates an avenue for
future quantitative research to be undertaken.
One of the key contributions that this study has made has been in the
identification of contingency factors of CRM implementation in Africa as well as
the discovery that corporate social investments should be linked to the CRM
programme. This raises a few questions that can be investigated as future
research topics:
What is the degree of impact that each identified CRM factor has on the
overall success of the CRM program. By understanding the weighting of
each factor, marketers can best direct their efforts and allocate resources
to those factors that have the greatest impact on their bottom line.
Specifically, they will be in a position to measure responses by using
scales for the identified factors.
How does a company measure the impact of its Corporate social
investment activities on its CRM programme?
212
Other potential useful themes can include:
In addition to the above, further research areas could include other countries in
Africa or other industries such as the Hospitality and the Retail industries. A
longitudinal study to measure the success of a CRM implementation over time
could also be undertaken.
213
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Appendix A:
DISCUSSION GUIDE
229
Overview
Your opinion on the different questions below is valued. Please rest assured that all
information provided would be treated with the utmost care and confidentiality. Neither
your name nor the name of your company will be mentioned in the analysis and in the
final research report.
I am a CRM Consultant:
I am a CRM sponsor/ Lead/ in an organisation:
I am a CRM implementation Facilitator:
230
1. Setting the scene
1.1 Can you please define what the concept of “CRM”/”Relationship” means in your
company?
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1.2 What role did you fulfill as part of this CRM initiative?
Strategy developer
Strategy implementer
Both of the above roles
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1.4 How would you rate the success of your CRM programme?
1 2 3 4 5
Why----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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2.1 What critical factors impeded on or enhanced your CRM success/failure?- Please
comments on each of them e.g. Socio-cultural, political, legal, regulatory and
compliance, etc.
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3. Institutional context
3.1 To what extent were these institutions able to influence your CRM approach?
Government
authorities/bodies
Professional, trade
and industry
associations
(Direct marketing
Association,
Advertising Bureau
Standards, Saarf,
Pamro, Media )
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industry
Labour organizations
(Unions)
Religious institutions
Other
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4. Country context
4.1 What made CRM implementation in your country unique? Expand on the
peculiarities of the Nigerian/South African environment, its customers, etc.
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4.2 How did you handle the challenges you were faced with? Please also mention any
CRM opportunities identified during the CRM implementation process
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5. CRM Measures
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6. Lessons Learnt
6.1 List 5 to 10 key lessons learnt from the implementation of your CRM programme
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7. Demographic data
7.3 Total CRM Experience- in years (in and outside your company):--------------------------
Thank you for your feedback. I sincerely appreciate your honest opinions and will take
your input into consideration. If you have any comments or concerns about this survey
please contact:
Nathalie Chinje
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Appendix B:
236
Authors/Date Core CRM Benefits
Increases revenue
Chen and Popovich (2003) Increases data sharing across selling organization
237
Enables customized marketing plan for each customer
Eggert, Ulaga, and Schultz (2006) Improves support for product development
Jones, Brown, Zoltners and Weitz Improves customization of services and product offerings
(2005)
Enhances ability to create long-term partnerships
Jones, Stevens, and Chonko (2005) Improves ability to find, obtain and keep customers
Coordinates communication
238
Jones, Sundaram and Chin (2002) Improves sales force efficiency and effectiveness
Improves pricing
Reduces cost-to-serve
Leigh and Tanner (2004) Improves sales force effectiveness and efficiency
Reduces cost-to-serve
Improves pricing
239
Improves cross-selling/up-selling
Rigby, Reichheld and Schefter (2002) Improves customer acquisition and retention efforts
Rigby and Ledingham (2004) Improves information sharing within the selling company
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Rivers and Dart (1999) Reduces administrative duties
Improves pricing
Sheth, Sisodia and Sharma (2000) Improves customization of marketing efforts to individual customers
Sheth and Sharma (2000) Improves the financial efficiency of marketing efforts
Tanner, Ahearne, Leigh, Mason and Improves customer segmentation and valuation
Moncrief (2005)
Enhances acquisition, development and retention of customers
241
Enables better allocation of resources across the customer portfolio
Thomas, Blattber, and Fox (2004) Enables companies to win-back lost customers
242
Enables individualized pricing
Winer (2001) Enables better customer attraction, conversion and retention of target
customers
Personalizes service
Enhances satisfaction
243